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No mistake between a Whooping Crain and a Sandhill. One's white and the other gray. About the difference between a Canada and Snow Goose. We saw them near Wichita Falls in Texas years ago when shooting Sandhills. An alert went out in the area that Whoopers were there.

On another note, I read somewhere quite a while back that each free-flying California Condor had cost the taxpayers a mil.

1.6 really. Not just pointing out this specific program but who knows how many different ones there are. The excessive spending is out of hand. There is no viable reason to spend this on some cranes. I may see the point of it if all forms of cranes period. I realize 1.6 is small in comparision. Now quail I can go for.

look at the millions that were wasted looking for a peckerwood. down the drain wasted.

And out of all the money and land that was at stake for the said Ivory Biiled Woodpecker...it was based off of a blurry picture...not even solid evidence!

I don't post much, but I have been involved in the proposed sandhill season in Tennessee. Disappointed to hear that a game warden is on the other side... as the Waterfowler said, different color, different call, whooper is twice as large.

We can tell the difference between duck species on the wing, but not the difference between a three-foot wingspan and an eight-foot one? Grey vs white?

It wouldn't be knowledgeable hunters that would make the mistake, it would be Jake legs that don't give a rip.

I think it would be great to have a season. But I just see this as the ammo those opposed to the season will use to prevent it.

Specks and snows look nothing alike to the trained eye but we all know specks get killed during conservation order by folks that don't take the time to id them, or either just don't care. And there are more than 400 wild specks out there. Not whoopers.

Outlaws will be outlaws and jake legs will be jake legs. We need more support enforcing the laws we have before we go creating more work for our CO's.

This being aside from the fact that our federal government is the largest example of excessive waste I've ever seen.... And yes that carries over to the those protecting our migratory wildlife i.e. the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service... Politics and bueracracy are a bi%$@

dead bird wrote:I don't post much, but I have been involved in the proposed sandhill season in Tennessee. Disappointed to hear that a game warden is on the other side... as the Waterfowler said, different color, different call, whooper is twice as large.

We can tell the difference between duck species on the wing, but not the difference between a three-foot wingspan and an eight-foot one? Grey vs white?

Whooper stats: L 52" WS 87"
Greater Sandhill: L 46" WS 77"
Lesser Sandhill: L 41" WS 73"

A far cry from the whooper being twice as large if you ask me, unless you meant body weight. Not sure where your 3' wingspan came from either but my info could be wrong. In low light conditions I can see the misidentification happening. I've seen people mistake cormorants for geese on sunny days.

three11 wrote:I also hate the way our government spends our tax dollars. I did a little research on The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. Almost half of its $1.6 Million annual budget comes from our tax dollars. This program has been in the works for approximately ten years. There are currently about 100 cranes in the program. That's $160,000 per crane($80,000 of our tax dollars).

How much do we spend each year on retired senators and congressmen? How much do we spend on worthless cheeseburgers and "@#$%#" rednecks that "can't" get a "Gosh Darnit" job? 500,000 for some cranes is money well spent if you ask me.

three11 wrote:Food for thought...I am all for trying to save endangered species, and it makes me sick to see people kill animals "just for fun". But I also hate the way our government spends our tax dollars. I did a little research on The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. Almost half of its $1.6 Million annual budget comes from our tax dollars. This program has been in the works for approximately ten years. There are currently about 100 cranes in the program. That's $160,000 per crane($80,000 of our tax dollars).

That's the same with almost all conservation efforts. If you donate $1 to DU or the Nature Conservancy for conservation, it is often matched by the local state gov't, and then again by federal gov't. It's one of the few gov't spending efforts I agree with. In the grand scheme of things, that gov't money almost doesn't register next to real gov't spending travesties like Medicaid or the cost of illegal immigrants in our country. LA county California spends over 6 billion dollars a year alone in education or healthcare (can't remember which) for illegal immigrants. The federal gov't doesn't spend that in a year in conservation organizations matching.

I will be the first to volunteer to put a bullet in the guy who did this. Wingman, you make sure he is not found for a couple months. As to the guys who think it costs too much, I suppose you feel the same way about woodducks and wild turkeys?

Wingman wrote:

dead bird wrote:I don't post much, but I have been involved in the proposed sandhill season in Tennessee. Disappointed to hear that a game warden is on the other side... as the Waterfowler said, different color, different call, whooper is twice as large.

We can tell the difference between duck species on the wing, but not the difference between a three-foot wingspan and an eight-foot one? Grey vs white?

Whooper stats: L 52" WS 87"
Greater Sandhill: L 46" WS 77"
Lesser Sandhill: L 41" WS 73"

A far cry from the whooper being twice as large if you ask me, unless you meant body weight. Not sure where your 3' wingspan came from either but my info could be wrong. In low light conditions I can see the misidentification happening. I've seen people mistake cormorants for geese on sunny days.

Ya I don't think your wingspan info is quite correct. That's ridiculous. Wingman is being kind. 3' wingspan would be a small snow goose and 8' is bigger than a tundra swan's.

They are very similar in size and even looks to the untrained eye under poor lighting. My dad was goose hunting in the prairies about 8 years ago and they had a coupe whooping cranes land in the dekes. My dad who knew the difference had to tell someone else in their group not to shoot bc he thought they were Sandhills, not even thinking the possibility of a Whooping crane coming in was in the realm.

duramax wrote:

three11 wrote:Food for thought...I am all for trying to save endangered species, and it makes me sick to see people kill animals "just for fun". But I also hate the way our government spends our tax dollars. I did a little research on The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. Almost half of its $1.6 Million annual budget comes from our tax dollars. This program has been in the works for approximately ten years. There are currently about 100 cranes in the program. That's $160,000 per crane($80,000 of our tax dollars).

That's the same with almost all conservation efforts. If you donate $1 to DU or the Nature Conservancy for conservation, it is often matched by the local state gov't, and then again by federal gov't. It's one of the few gov't spending efforts I agree with. In the grand scheme of things, that gov't money almost doesn't register next to real gov't spending travesties like Medicaid or the cost of illegal immigrants in our country. LA county California spends over 6 billion dollars a year alone in education or healthcare (can't remember which) for illegal immigrants. The federal gov't doesn't spend that in a year in conservation organizations matching.

No one is disagreeing that other entitlement programs need to be cut, they probably need to be cut more than conservation efforts in most of our opinions. The fact remains that $160,000 is a butt load of $$$ for a crane, esp when in most of our country the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 is about the same.

I didn't know the differnce until now - not real close - unless they are piling into the timber just at shooting time on a cloudy morning:

Sandhill


Whooping

"@#$%#" it http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/09 ... latestnews