Skip to main content

David A. Brandt

Whooping cranes (Grus americana) of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo population migrate twice each year through the Great Plains in North America. Recovery activities for this endangered species include providing adequate places to stop and rest during migration, which are generally referred to as stopover sites. To assist in recovery efforts, initial estimates of stopover site use intensity are presented, which provide opportunity to identify areas across the migration range used more intensively by whooping cranes. We used location data acquired from 58 unique individuals fitted with platform transmitting terminals that collected global position system locations. Radio-tagged birds provided 2,158 stopover sites over 10...
thumbnail
The central Platte River Valley represents a key mid-latitude stopover This dataset supports a contemporary analysis of nocturnal roost selection for sandhill cranes staging along the Platte River during 2003-2007. We explored variation in selection for previously established characteristics of roost sites, including river channel width, vegetation height along the river bank, and distance to nearest disturbance feature. This analysis also included novel environmental factors (yearly estimates of corn near roost sites, nightly temperature, wind speed, and river discharge) and how they may interact with the more established characteristics.
thumbnail
The whooping crane (Grus americana) is a listed endangered species in North America, protected under federal legislation in the United States and Canada. The only self-sustaining and wild population of Whooping Cranes nests at and near Wood Buffalo National Park near the provincial border of Northwest Territories and Alberta, Canada. Birds from this population migrate through the Great Plains of North America and winter along the Gulf Coast of Texas at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding lands. These data represent migration corridors and precision estimates for this population that can be used for conservation planning activities, including targeting conservation, mitigation, and recovery actions and...
thumbnail
These data were developed to support an effort to characterize migration strategies in the U.S. Great Plains and Canadian Prairies and to explore sources of heterogeneity in their migration strategy, including space use, timing, and performance. Data come from locations and other information related to 58 marked Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) from 2010–2016. These data represent basic information about space use during migrations of marked whooping cranes, including intensity of use and fidelity.
thumbnail
Wintering sandhill crane exposure to wind energy development in the central and southern Great Plains, USA datasets
Numerous wind energy projects have been constructed in the central and southern Great Plains, USA, the main wintering area for midcontinent Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis). We assessed exposure of wintering Sandhill Cranes to the current distribution of wind towers in the central and southern Great Plains by estimating overlap using location data from platform transmitting terminals (PTT) collected during winters 1998–2004. Because 90% of wind towers in the region were installed 2004–2013, comparing an established distribution of wind towers (as of January 2014) with pre-construction crane (1998-2004) distribution provides an initial assessment of the midcontinent population’s exposure. Distributions of cranes...
View more...
ScienceBase brings together the best information it can find about USGS researchers and offices to show connections to publications, projects, and data. We are still working to improve this process and information is by no means complete. If you don't see everything you know is associated with you, a colleague, or your office, please be patient while we work to connect the dots. Feel free to contact sciencebase@usgs.gov.