Sandhill cranes move into new habitat in Glen Ellyn
It's not so easy to carry a fully grown sandhill crane, even if most of the trek is downhill.
Amy Cain discovered the difficulties the task presents Wednesday as she carried one of the latest additions to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn to its new home.
"First of all, you have to be careful with the lower part of the leg and make sure not to carry them there because that can hurt their legs," the wildlife keeper explained. "Then you've got to watch out for the beak, so that's why we carried them backward."
She also didn't count on the bird's enthusiasm when it spotted a large lagoon adjacent its new pen. Despite being wrapped in a sheet, the large bird began flapping its wings when it spied the inviting body of water flush with lily pads.
"They're heavy birds, too," Cain said as she adjusted her grip on the male crane.
The crane's female companion made the trip from their temporary home to the new $100,000 enclosure with much less fuss, despite being trailed by a phalanx of nearly two dozen onlookers.
Once inside the enclosure, both birds seemed fairly nonplused by the ordeal and slowly wandered around the pen inspecting their new digs.
"I'm surprised they're not vocalizing," said Sandy Fejt, the center's supervisor. "I thought we'd be getting lots of noise from them."
The male is 14-year-old Nebula and the female is 20-year-old Pui. They were born in captivity as part of a crane restoration project and presented to millionaire industrialist Brooks McCormick by the Crane Foundation for his philanthropy with that group. They lived at his Warrenville farm.
Before he died in 2006, McCormick sold his 607-acre farm to the DuPage County Forest Preserve District to be used by the public. Forest preserve officials decided the cranes would be better off elsewhere once the farm was made public. The DuPage Wildlife Foundation agreed to pay the forest preserve for the cost of a new pen at the wildlife center in Glen Ellyn if the district would build it.
The pen was completed more than a month ago, but officials at Willowbrook waited to move the cranes to allow the landscaping to take root.
"I'm actually most proud of the pond in there," said Kevin Horsfall, a landscape architect supervisor at the center. "We wanted to give them a spot where they could wade and that was going to be harder once we found out we couldn't build the pen at the pond."
Builders dug a trench in the enclosure and connected a solar-powered pump between the man-made pond and the adjacent natural pond to provide water and hunting opportunities for the birds. Fejt said they've seen bullfrogs in the pen's pond, which are a staple of the crane's diet.
St. James Farm property manager Wayne Zaininger opened the gate to the crane's new home to let them in. For years he helped care for the birds at the massive horse farm along with a bounty of other birds kept there by the McCormick.
"These were his favorites," Zaininger said. "They were a big part of St. James Farm and especially their unison call echoing around the farm."
The new pen is located deep within Willowbrook's property, away from the other cages that house chronically ill or injured animals. Fejt said this was done because the cranes' calls could signal wild sandhill cranes to the area and she didn't want those birds landing in the parking lot.
The pen also is outfitted with security cameras because of its remote location, Fejt said. Eventually the cameras could be used by researchers to monitor the birds' behavior and characteristics.