- William Blake
A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!
"Whooping Crane" in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - Maree©
From the first minute I saw the program on National Geographic about teaching fledgling Whooping Cranes to migrate, I'd lost my heart to the plight of these stunning birds. My heart went out to the youngsters, having to take the lead from their human benefactors, taking on the massive job of imprinting the migration route into their memories, and every
set-back or loss in the program had my stomach lurching.
The Whooping Crane was once at the brink of extinction. It is making a steady recovery thanks to intensive management efforts in Canada and the United States, and as of December 2004, 468 Whooping Cranes existed in the wild and in captivity. All birds for the reintroduction come from captive flocks.
Whoopers are the tallest of all birds in North America. An adult male stands 1.5 m tall, weighs as much as 7.5 kg, and has a wingspan up to 2.5 m wide. Despite their size, cranes average a flight speed of about 45 kmh.