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<br />'", <br /> <br />6 <br /> <br />Another migration route crossed the Appalachians to the Atlantic Coast. These birds <br />apparently nested in the Hudson Bay area of Canada, Coastal areas of New Jersey, South <br />Carolina, and river deltas farther south were the wintering grounds. The specimen records <br />or sighting reports for some eastern locations are Alabama 1899; Arkansas 1889; Florida <br />1927 or 1928; Georgia 1885; Illinois 1891; Indiana 1881; Kentucky 1886; Manitoba 1948; <br />Michigan 1882; Minnesota 1917; Mississippi 1902; Missouri 1884; New Jersey 1857; Ohio <br />1902; Ontario 1895; South Carolina 1850; and Wisconsin 1878 (Allen 1952, Burleigh <br />1944, Hallman 1965, Sprunt and Chamberlain 1949). <br /> <br />Atlantic Coast locations used by whooping cranes include the Cape May area and Beesley's <br />Point at Great Egg Bay in New Jersey; the Waccamaw River in South Carolina; the deltas of <br />the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, and St. Sinion's Island in Georgia; and tha St, <br />Augustine area of Florida. Gulf Coast locations include Mobile Bay, Alabama; Bay St. Louis <br />in Mississippi; and the numerous records from southwestern Louisiana where the last bird <br />was captured in 1950. Coastal Louisiana contained both a nonmigratory flock and wintering <br />migrants (Allen 1952). <br /> <br />"There is evidence to suggest that whooping cranes occurred in Florida, perhaps well into <br />the 20th century." (Nesbitt 1982:151). Nesbitt described various sightings, including one <br />by 0, E. Baynard, a respected field naturalist, who stated that the last flock of whooping <br />cranes (14 birds) he saw in Florida was in 1911 naar Micanopy, southern Alachua County. <br />Two whooping cranes were reported east of the Kissimmee Rivar on January 19, 1936, and <br />a whooping crane was shot and photographed north of St. Augustine, St, Johns County, in <br />1927 or 1928 (Nesbitt 1982). <br /> <br />Records from interior areas of the southeast include the Montgomery, Alabama, area; in <br />Arkansas at Crocketts Bluff on the White River, and near Corning; in Missouri in Jackson <br />County near Kansas City, near Corning, in Lawr.8nce County southwest of Springfield, in <br />Audrain County, and near St, Louis; and in Kentucky near Louisville and Hickman. It is <br />unknown whether these records represent wintering locations, remnants of a nonmigratory <br />population, or wandering birds: <br /> <br />Today most whooping cranes migrate from WBNP in Canada to Aransas NWR on the Texas <br />coast, This route passes south-south eastwardithrough northeastern Alberta, southcentral <br />Saskatchewan, northeastern Montana, western:North Dakota, western South Dakota, <br />central Nebraska and Kansas, west-central Oklahoma, and east-central Texas (Fig, 2), <br />Scattered occurrences haVe, however, been reported in adjacent states and provinces, <br /> <br />Allen (1952) believed the tall grass prairies of southwestern Louisiana were the whooping <br />crane's principal historical wintering range, Such prairies also occurred along the Gulf Coast <br />of Texas and northeastern Mexico, primarily in the vicinity of the Rio Grande Delta, Other <br />significant wintering areas were the interior tablelands in western Texas and the high <br />plateaus of central Mexico, where whooping crllnes occurred among thousands of sandhill <br />cranes. ' ' <br /> <br />Present Distribution: Whooping cranes currently exist in three wild populations and at five <br />captive locations. The only self-sustaining wild population, the AWP, nests in the <br />Northwest Territories and adjacent areas of Alberta, Canada, primarily within the boundaries <br />