Featured Presentations
Cranes of the Pacific Flyway
Saturday, November 3, 2012
12:30-1:20 PM
Crete Hall, Hutchins Street
Square, Lodi, CA
Join us in welcoming back Gary Ivey of the International Crane Foundation. Gary will discuss the 3 subspecies of Sandhill Crane that use the Pacific Flyway. He will have the latest information about their breeding ranges, migration paths and wintering sites, much of it from his own research.
Gary Ivey is the Western Crane Conservation Manager for the International Crane Foundation (savingcranes.org), where he focuses on the Sandhill cranes in the Pacific Flyway, from Alaska to California. He is also working on a PhD at Oregon State University on wintering ecology of Sandhill cranes. Committed to the conservation of all water birds in western North America, Gary is the current president of The Trumpeter Swan Society, non-profit organization dedicated to assuring the vitality and welfare of wild Trumpeter Swan populations.
Raising Kid Colt: A Story of a Young Sandhill Crane
Sunday, November 4, 2012
12:30-1:20 PM
Crete Hall, Hutchins Street
Square, Lodi, CA
Special guest Nina Faust will take us to the Sandhill Cranes’ Alaskan summering area with her new video, Raising Kid Colt: A Story of a Young Sandhill Crane. Experience up close the intimate world of Sandhill Crane family life, which includes seldom-seen perspectives of raising crane colts, as well as a progression of colt development over the summer. The video will transport you to their personal world and leave you with new insights of these iconic birds.
For many years, Sandhill Cranes have been visiting Inspiration Ridge Preserve in Homer, Alaska, where Nina and her husband, Edgar Bailey, co-founders of Kachemak Crane Watch, have lived since 1998. One day 2 years ago, a pair of Lesser Sandhill Cranes claimed a breeding territory at the Preserve. When it became clear that this pair was not going away, Nina, an amateur videographer, started filming them almost daily during their summer stay. She captured feather painting, pair bonding, dancing, mating, and more, and when the pair returned in 2011, she captured incredible footage of their daily life as they raised their family.
The cranes’ story is intertwined with the lives of Nina, a former high school teacher and longtime conservationist, Ed, a retired wildlife biologist, their 7 pet Cackling Geese, and 2 alpacas. It illustrates the amazing adaptability of these ancient birds to survive and raise a family in a rural suburban area where cranes frequently establish nesting territories very near habitation. Raising Kid Colt was shot with a Canon Vixia HV30 HDV mini video camera.
Visit the Kachemak Crane Watch website at cranewatch.org to learn more about Nina’s and Ed’s educational work and efforts to protect Homer’s Sandhill Cranes. Raising Kid Colt will be available to purchase on DVD through the International Crane Foundation, savingcranes.org, and at the Festival. All proceeds will benefit ICF’s Western Crane Conservation program.
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