Spring Migration Update: Jilin Province

Our last update on Bai He, the banded Siberian Crane that we are tracking north this spring, placed the young crane in Liaoning Province in northeastern China. Just yesterday we were excited to receive a location coordinate from Jilin Province, over 200 miles to the north (click here to view the migration map)! The location is within the Momoge National Nature Reserve, another important "rest stop" for Siberian Cranes along their East Asia flyway. Last spring, over 2,000 Siberian Cranes were observed at the reserve, and Bai He stopped in this area for several days last fall as he migrated south. Next stop - Russia!

Siberian Cranes at Momoge National Nature Reserve
in spring 2008. Photos by Ren Qing.

Artwork Connects Us All

Art is an important communications and education tool for the Three White Cranes project, as we strive to share information and experiences between three different languages and cultures. Recently we've received news about two art projects completed by Three White Cranes schools in the United States and China:

Each year Jan Weiler's third grade class at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin learn about cranes through classroom activities, art projects and a class field trip to the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Jan recently emailed us images of her top three "craniacs" - students whose crane artwork were chosen as best in the class (the students and their artwork are pictured below). Thank you, Jan, for sharing this news, and congratulations to your student winners! Photos by Jan Weiler

We also would like to celebrate the students in the Xianghai Middle School art club in northeastern China. The students painted a new mural this fall in their village (click here to read about the first mural that the students painted last summer). The mural is entitled, "Build our home, hand in hand," and shows the Xianghai village past, present and future. ICF is sponsoring a video about this project, focusing on how the Xianghai students are learning about their environment and its problems, and how they are taking action through art and example to bring solutions to their community. We look forward to the student's next project and thank the Xianghai art club for sharing their inspiring story! Photos by Shi Yanqiu

A Week in the Life of a Crane

As we wait to receive new location data from our two banded Siberian Cranes, we thought it would be fun to share with you a few more details about where the Siberian Cranes stopped to rest in Liaoning Province earlier this month.

Our first crane, No. 59947, spent at least 12 days (October 31 - November 11) near a large, shallow water reservoir (Wolong Lake). The reservoir is on the west side of Kanping City (the local county seat) in central Liaoning Province. In the past, the water in the reservoir was between 1.5-3.5 m deep; but, in 2003, the reservoir completely dried out and there was no more water. The local goverment started storing water back in the reservoir in late 2005, and the reservoir was set up as a provincial nature reserve when it was restored (a provincial reserve is similar to a state park in the United States). Most of the reservoir was covered by aquatic plants in very shallow water, especially at the southern end. In spring 2008, 800 Siberian Cranes were observed at the reservoir during annual waterbird surveys. Red-crowned Cranes and Swan Geese have also been observed at the reservoir.

The image above shows the locations of No. 59947 as it moved around the reservoir in early November (click on the image to view a larger version of the map).

At the same time, between October 30 - November 2, No. 59948 moved to southeastern Inner Mongolia, about 60 km southeast of Tongliao City. This location is in the southern part of the Keerqin Desert. There are many sand dunes and also many small lakes and ponds in the desert . The location of the banded crane is by one of those shallow lakes (click on the picture below to view a larger version of the map).

On November 6 No. 59948 moved south and stopped along the Yellow Sea coast in Liaoning Province. This location is right on the salt marsh (pictures below) near the mouth of the Daling River. Click on the image below to view a larger version of the map.

We thank Dr. Su Lying and Jim Harris for submitting this information and images.

Student Camps in Northeast China

The two banded Siberian Cranes that we are tracking this fall are currently located in Northeast China near several wetland nature reserves that are involved in our Three White Cranes project. This area is an important migration "rest stop" for Siberian Cranes, which may gather in large flocks of over over one thousand birds to rest and feed before continuing their migration. The image below was taken by Russian researcher, Sergei Sleptsov, in October 2007 at Momoge Nature Reserve in northwestern Jilin Province. Perhaps our two banded cranes have stopped to rest in this same area as they journey south this fall!

Since 2000, the International Crane Foundation has partnered with nature reserves in Russia and China to host international environmental camps at the wetland reserves used by the migrating cranes. Summer camps are a strong tradition in both countries, and through this project we are able to combine this tradition with learning about the environment and cranes. Through these camps, teachers and students from the United States, Russia and China learn about wetlands and cranes, along with their shared responsibility in protecting these valuable resources.

This summer, four American teachers from Milwaukee and Racine WI, along with educators from the Amur Region in southeastern Russia, traveled to Northeast China to participate in two student camps at the Xianghai and Keerqin Nature Reserves. Nearly 50 Chinese students and 21 teachers and reserve staff participated in the Xianghai camp, which included training for the local teachers prior to the student activities and focused on the themes of water, wetlands, forests and waterbirds. Following the Xianghai camp, the Russian and American teachers traveled to neighboring Keerqin Nature Reserve to help lead a second camp for 20 local students.

Following are several images from the teacher training and student camp held in July 2008 at the Xianghai reserve (photos by Zhang Juan). To learn more about the Xianghai camp activities, read our previous post Crane Art Six Meters Long...Brings Students Together.