Thanksgiving in Port Aransas, Texas 2008 included my family sharing copies of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story and recalling our youthful days at La Charrette where our family once raised thousands of turkeys, chickens plus cattle and hogs. We gave thanks for everything unique to our shared lives from those days on our Charrette Creek, Warren County, Missouri farm forward. Multiple gifts were exchanded among family members.

My sisters (shown above, l - r) Virginia, Dorothy and Helen visited for five days, later joined by my son Scott and his family for Turkey Day celebrations. We walked the beaches, toured the area and reminisced late into the night sipping coffee from commerative La Charrette Village mugs. Conservations featured swapping family stories, books and pictures mingled with real and gag gifts.

Once again and predictably on this grand American holiday, ‘Thanks & Giving’ were combined with birds… both Walkinshaw’s endangered cranes and warblers plus the celebrated American turkey.

“Whoopers are stars of birding festival” proclaims the 2008-09 Visitors Guide published by the South Jetty newspaper of Port Aransas, Texas. Their November, 2008 Visitors Guide explains that thousands of nature and bird lovers will flock to the 13th Annual Celebration of Whooping Cranes and Other Birds February 26 to March 1, 2009. Early registration begins December 1, 2008 with the $20.00 fee entitling one to special discounts throughout the weekend program.

Port Aransas South Jetty

Whooping Crane topics will be presented at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute. Ann Vaughn, Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce leader, will present each speaker with a copy of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Live Story. Lowell M. Schake, the book’s author, will introduce his newest volume between the presentations of two prominant Whooping Cranes experts; Tom Stein of the Aransas Refuge and George Archibald of the International Crane Foundation. Throughout the four-day event Schake will be in a booth with Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) personnel. AMIGO, friends of ANWR will sell copies there with all proceeds going to the ‘Friends’ group to support their nature preservation work. Schake welcomes the opportunity to sign copies.

Whooping cranes may be see at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge at Austwell, about 45 miles north of Port Aransas, or by taking a tour boat provided as part of Celebration activities. Almost 300 Whoopers are expected to winter at Aransas Refuge this year, an amazing new record number!!

REGISTER EARLY by by clicking here!! Proceed to the second page for the role of On the Wings of Cranes.

The Northwest Branch Library’s Cliff Mosss Nature Education Center will host a series of programs for birders of all levels focusing on the newly released book, “On the Wings of Crane: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story.” The first program begins at 2 p.m. Saturday at the library, 3202 McKinzie Road. The discussion will be led by Lowell M. Schake its author, the son-in-law of Walkinshaw. Free. The Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi will sell copies of the book for $24.95. Informarion: 361-241-9329.
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This invitation appeared as one of the two ‘Best bets’ to attend in the greater Corpus Christi community for the weekend of November 15, 2008. This highlighted sidebar attraction was featured on page 7 of the WEEKEND insert in the ‘Around the Bend’ section of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper.

Plan to attend!

Larry Walkinshaw is shown above about the time he became a Boy Scout Leader in 1930. For forty years Dr. Walkinshaw, a Battle Creek, Michigan dentist, led young men in scouting in various capacities. Soon the popular Scoutmaster of Troop 29 of the Nottawa Trails Council had over 70 scouts participating. The Tice boys were among them.

Seventy-seven years later I met them at the Michigan Audubon Society’s CraneFest Fund raising event on October 10, 2008. Paul Tice, his wife, Doris, myself and Wayne Tice were there as shown above. Another former Boy Scout, Lynn Junkett, all from nearby Battle Creek, attended as well. These, and many other scouts, had all birded with Walkinshaw. Wayne Tice was with Larry when he recorded Michigan Sandhill Crane Nest No. 1 where all modern-day crane saving efforts began on that eventful day of May 31, 1931. These events are chronicled in detail on page 25 in On the Wings of Cranes. It was here Larry said, “I had a site of cranes that completely changed his life.” It also affected his scouts to say nothing of crane populations worldwide.

Wayne, 91 years and going strong, sent me Christmas greetings in 2008. “Sure glad we made Lowell’s book review.” He continued, “‘Doc’ was a great inspiration to me.”

During the 1970s and 1980s, these former Troop 29 members joined others to stage reunions for their Scoutmaster, always highlighted with more praise and gifts. One elegant painting of Florida Sandhills now graces the home of his Walkinshaw’s daughter.

Be a hero. Plan a plesant surprise for your birding friends. Provide them a copy of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story. Save ‘double’ shipping cost by sending them directly to your friends. Not only will they have a great read but you’ll be shopping smart in our tight economy! After ordering, tell them something special will soon arrive on the wings of cranes. Available in either paperback or hard copy.

Click below on the hot spot to BUY NOW.

"BUY NOW"

Any history buffs for friends? Lowell Schake’s La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, Zebulon Pike - offers readers “A delicately crafted absorbing account of an American past seldom encountered in conventional history… meticulously researched,” according to Kirkus Discoveries. Others think the same attributes apply On the Wings of Cranes.

To purchase this STAR volume reissued by the publisher in 2006, click on BEST of AMERICAN FRONTIER HISTORY

The above volumes represent my two latest books fourteen years into retirement. My first post-retirement volume is free. This extensive Schake family history and genealogy, The Schakes of La Charette is posted on the Internet and recommended as a ‘Must read’ by Missouri geneagologists.

Click on READ for FREE to enjoy Germanic history, Missouri frontier life and genealogy galore. The geneanology of about 15,000 entries spans from the 1100s to the present and is on file at the Family History Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Should you discover a need for assistance with your genealogy involving these families from Lippe-Detmold that came to Warren County, Charrette Township, Missouri, let me know. I have several valuable reference books that have benefitted many others.

To find more on these three topics, proceed down the ‘Books’ menu of these Web Pages to entries of May 2, 2006 for La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, Zebulon Pike - and to April 18, 2006 for The Schakes of La Charette. Considering all the varied publishing options employed - hard copy, paperback, electronic with reissued volumes - eight ISBN book codes appear.

Genre: Nonfiction/Biography/Autobiography/History/American/Ethnohistory/Genealogy

Other menu alternatives within these Web Pages include the ‘Press Room’, ‘Reviews and Praise’, an ‘Events Archives’, and of course the all purpose ‘Blog’. Pages sometimes appear under more than one catagory as the topic dictates.

Search. Study. Enjoy. Leave a comment or two. Its been my pleasure sharing these thoughts and experiences. Thanks for the opportunity!

Today the female Kirtland’s Warbler named ‘Sexy’, weighing in at about 1/2 ounce, may be regarded as the species saving matriarch. Her story unfolds in dreamy romantic fashion. She, like all lady Kirtland’s, did not sing. But each spring and fall she migrated from her exclusive Michigan nesting grounds to winter somewhere in the Bahamas. She acqiured her formal name - 61-24179 - on June 22, 1970. That’s when Larry Walkinshaw banded her. Sexy and Company appeared in print in Bird Watcher’s Digest in 1979, a reprint of the original appearing in the Jack-Pine Warbler the year before.

Banding Kirtland’s and other species offered opportunity to study family lineages, just as we chronicle our genealogies. Walkinshaw was able to capture and identify enough of them to document three generations before concluding work on them in 1983. He was then eighty-years old.

‘Sexy’ was part of the Kirtland’s population when only 167 pairs remained. During this lowest ebb in Kirtland’s numbers, Walkinshaw was the only one officials would allow banding them. Since ‘Sexy’ and her daughters, even a few granddaghters, produced almost twice as many fledglings each of eight seasons as her contemporaries, their impact upon recovery was profound. This becomes especially vivid upon considering the compounding affects as if approaching exponential population increase of her linage.

CORPUS CHRISTI’S'S FEATHERED CAP

Living in this “Birdiest” of regions not only offers much daily satisfaction, but enhances my appreciation for those who worked to understand - and salvage - the natural world. Without their assistance, my family and friends could not enjoy the many birds gliding over the sand dunes at sunrise. The once threatened Brown Pelicans proceed in ‘V’ formed squadrons starting the day. My mid-day beauty takes flight as Roseate Spoonbills appear. Once they were the assigned species to be rescue by Robert Porter Allen before he and Larry Walkinshaw studied the Whooping Cranes, America’s Symbol of Conservation. Together they searched Canada and studied at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas to save those majestic icons. Across the day Humming Birds, Grackles, Doves and Laughing Gulls cheerfully fill the air. Yet the signature songs of Whistling Duicks at dusk seem special when orchestrated by rapid wing beats in yet another ‘V’ formation taking them somewhere. Where? Why? What’s their hurry?

Walkinshaw always claimed their were “Human stories to be told…” if we could understand bird behavior.

The news release of November 3, 2008 proceeds:
The Northwest Brach Public Library’s Clif Moss Nature Education Center invites birders of all levels of interest to a series of programs focusing on the newly released book, On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story. The first program will be held at 2p.m. Saturday, November 15, 2008 at the library.

Dr. Larry Walkinshaw, who died in 1993 at the age of 88, was one of the nation’s leading authorities on a number of bird species, including Whooping Cranes and Sandhill Cranes. Among other things, he was involved in the recovery efforts of the Whooping Crane population, which winters in South Texas each year at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

The discussion of the book will be led by its author, Lowell M. Schake, son-in-law of Walkinshaw. Schake is a retired professor who now lives in Port Aransas. The topic of the first program will be: Overview of Walkinshaw’s Life Accomplishments. What Motivated Him and Why?

In addition to the November 15th program, Schake will lead other discussion at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 13, 2008 and at 3 p.m. Saturday, January 10, 2009. The Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi will have copies of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story available for purchase at the library for $24.95. The Proceeds will be used to support local birding and conservation activities.

Contact: Lynda Whitton, Northwest Branch Library 361-241-9329.
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The Northwest Branch Public Library of Corpus Christi premiers as the city’s ‘birding library’ in the “Birdiest City in America”. The ornithological honor represents a three-year running record of 241 or more species spotted and verified by local birders, mostly representing local Audubon Outdoor Club and Coastal Bend Audubon members.

“The library wishes to encourage youthful participation in birding and nature in general,” Head Librarian Lynda Whitton told me in April, 2008. Fourteen children and their families completed a birding class sponsored by the library in July. The five-week Saturday series that commenced at 5 p.m. at the library located at 3202 McKinzie Road in Corpus Christi included field-trips to nearby Tule Lake to assit in identification of bird calls and other details of avain life history.

The current series of monthly educational programs evolved from my previous contacts with the General City Librarian for Corpus Christi, Texas. Herb Canales introduced me to his ‘Friends of the Library’ group to stag a signing event for my La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American West in 2003. By 2005 it was reissued by publisher iUniverse, Inc., by then taking on a life of its own.

In July 2008, I met Herb in the parking lot of his Flour Bluff branch library. “Hey, you’re the book guy” was his attempt to grasp my name. We visited about the upcoming release of On the Wings of Cranes and my desire to establish another signing event. One thing led to another and soon Herb had provided the necessary contacts to establish the upcoming November-December-January series of programs. Herb also aided my introduction to local Corpus Christi Caller-Times bird columnist Phyllis Yochem. Her “Rave Review’ was previously featured in this blog series.

Not only do I owe Herb “Thanks” for that much appreciated assistance, but for all the diligent work completed over the last ten-years by his staff. Those at his Main downtown library, as well as at Flour Bluff, processed at least a thousand request of mine - interlibrary loans, routine retrievals, reorderings, and obtaining rare or difficult to locate volumes.

Perhaps we can all extend “Thanks” by attending the many excellent birding programs offered by my local Corpus Christi libraries.

Larry Walkinshaw studied endangered Kirtland’s Warblers since 1931, the same year that Greater Sandhill Cranes joined his birding agenda. His infatuation with them was as intense as for cranes. Some of his mystique toward Kirtland’s probably resided in his being the first to band one. And as with cranes, no one else could find their nests as readily as he. Once Roger Tory Petrson came to Michigan looking for them, but without succes. Peterson wrote Larry, “Next time I try to find Kirtland’s Warblers, I am going to get in touch with you…” Larry discovered over 340 Kirland’s nests by 1988.

Another Kirtland’s ‘first’ for Walkinshaw involved the male pictured above, the first one found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near Gwinn of Marquette County in 1983 . Only a few Kirtland’s had moved away from Lower Michigan as their population began to expand. Walkinshaw found this one within five minutes. “He sang all day, 6, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6 times per minute, stopping periodically to get some larvae. His territory was about 358 ft. long and 250 ft. wide. He had several favorite singing branches” on jack pine trees according to Larry’s notes of infinate detail.

Interestingly, only male Kirtland’s Warblers sing their highly distinctive song. So distinctive in fact that hearing them, even without visual conformation, was employed by Harold Mayfield, Walkinshaw, and others to document about 300 surviving pairs in 1974… their lowest ebb. These and a myrid of other adventures in Michigan and in the Bahamas - the Kirtland’s winter home - led Walkinshaw to publish two definitive volumes on them. The one pictured below, published in 1983, was followed by “Nest Observations of the Kirtland’s Warbler - A Half Century Quest” appearing in 1988. Both chronicle species saving events.

The picture shown with the Kirtland’s Warbler discussion at Wikipedia is one of Walkinshaw’s - although not acknowledged as such. To access this Kirtland’s life cycle and recovery program discussion click HERE.

Shown above is Dr. Lawrence H. ‘Larry’ Walkinshaw (1904-1993) when searching the Kirtland’s Warbler nesting grounds associated with the Mack Lake burn of 1980, Crawford County, Michigan. Nonetheless, neither the exact location of the amateur Michigan birder when this portrait was taken nor its phototographer are known with certainty. During this interval Walkinshaw was asked to contribute to a research project funded by the USFWS and administered by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources to help salvage another endangered species. The author was told by Kirtland’s Warbler experts that he was the only one who could find their nests with any regularity.

Phyllis Yochem concluded her review On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story saying the book exposed “one of the heros of American ornithology”. Certainly she was correct but if Larry Walkinshaw had heard or read such laudable praise he would downplay it in the extreme. Walkinshaw was a very reserve and unpretentious individual… perhaps even to a fault.

So much so that his modesty even became a motivating factor in the origins of his biography. Everyone in the Walkinshaw family knew how hard he worked, how he loved birding, traveling to study them in the wilds of nature and the long hours devoted to recording field notes, and writing. What we did not know was the eventual impact of it all. Did his sacrificing actually make a difference? That’s why Wendy, my wife - Walkinshaw’s daughter - asked that his biography be compiled.

Discovering for the first time the full reality of his species conservation successes places his family in Yochem’s camp…he really was one of the heros of American ornithology. Better than that however, the cranes and warblers he worked to save offer living testiment well beyond any other acclaim.