First whooping cranes of the season arrive at Alabama refuge

There’s an old song about “when the sparrows come back to Capistrano.” Alabama’s version could be the whooping cranes that nest at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge along the Tennessee River. The first of these migratory birds are being spotted. The Decatur Daily reports that the endangered fowl, which spend the winter at the thirty five thousand acre refuge in north Alabama, began showing up this week. About a dozen whooping cranes wintered at the refuge last year. Adults are identifiable by their white bodies, red crowns, black wing tips and the whooping sound they make. The birds started spending the winter in north Alabama in 2004 and have attracted bird watchers from across the United States. The popularity of the birds led Wheeler to create an annual festival planned for mid-January.