Into Whooperland – A Photographer’s Journey

Book overview by Jeff Kurrus
Photos by Michael Forsberg

Michael Forsberg’s latest ebook, “Into Whooperland — A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes” is a celebration and warning to readers relating to one of many world’s rarest birds.

The ebook begins the place Forsberg is at his greatest — within the area. A journal entry prepares readers for what’s but to return: “A flash of lightning from a predawn thunderstorm lit up the roost and revealed a glimpse of white among the thousands of dark shapes. As the storm passed and the veil of night lifted, there he was: a rare white wonder standing tall above the noisy pulsing masses of sandhill cranes.”

This description of seeing a lone whooping crane on the Platte River in Nebraska is indicative of this ebook’s most resonating energy: When Forsberg decides to sort out a topic, he’s all-in. His work goes past pictures, which is as beautiful because it’s ever been.

To create “Into Whooperland,” he enlisted the assistance of what appears a numerous listing of scientists, landowners and different conservationists to ship a easy message. This is written by Rich Beilfuss, President and CEO of the International Crane Foundation, within the ebook’s introduction: “We must find sustainable solutions for our lands and waters, for the wildlife we love and for our own livelihoods and future.”

This theme pervades all through the ebook, the message hitting you on each web page. Forsberg needs you to know that the world’s whooping crane inhabitants fell to fewer than 20 birds through the Nineteen Forties, and readers are reminded of this quantity throughout the ebook’s greater than 220 pages. The story of the whooping crane is a warning of what has occurred and what’s going to occur if we don’t defend this fowl — if we don’t defend all wildlife.

Another devoted member of Forsberg’s workforce was Chris Boyer, who traveled with the writer in a Cessna 1957 prop aircraft alongside Whooper Highway, the migration route from the Texas Gulf Coast to northern Canada. Or the International Crane Foundation’s co-founder George Archibald, recognized for “dancing” with captive cranes and inspiring Forsberg to jot down this ebook. Or scientist Andy Caven, who was his picture accomplice within the chapter entitled “Eight Days in a Blind,” the place Forsberg chronicles his time in a photograph blind deep within the coronary heart of whooping crane nesting grounds within the boreal wetlands, forests and plains of Canada.

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“One of us always watched the nest, except roughly between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., when we both tried to sleep. The last thing I would do before nodding off was manually focus my lens on the nest. I kept a shutter release cable next to my head so I wouldn’t miss a photograph … .”

Drawings and different findings got here from the journey. Observations grew to become area notes and area notes grew to become science. “Into Whooperland” gives perception into Forsberg’s many hours in a crane blind, and typically, in essentially the most sudden locations, the reader finds humor. “The mosquitoes are fierce inside the blind this morning. Somewhere there is a breach.”

“Into Whooperland” is split into the next sections, which learn like chapters: “Winter Grounds,” “Migration North,” “Summer Nesting,” “Migration South,” “The Central Flyway” and “New Beginnings.” It is within the Central Flyway the place Forsberg chronicles his journey with Boyer within the Cessna as he makes an attempt to comply with the whooping crane’s migration path by way of the guts of the continent.

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The ebook is a component love story, half espresso desk ebook and all documentary. The reader learns that these birds mingle. They jostle. They most definitely dance.

The reader additionally learns all of the troublesome steps to rearing a chick within the wild and in captivity on the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and the way the inhabitants acquired so low within the first place.

“Whooping crane biology would have made them especially vulnerable to hunting and egg collection,” writes Beilfuss. “They are long-lived, become flightless when they molt their primary flight feathers every two to three years, reach breeding maturity at three to five years old, and raise one or (rarely) two chicks per year that require intensive parental care for about three months until fledgling … . The birds’ preference for breeding in wetlands of the fertile tallgrass and northern mixed-grass prairie regions, made them highly vulnerable to habitat loss as settlers plowed and drained those lands for farming.”

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Alongside the ebook’s instructional elements are Forsberg’s pictures. Close-ups of whooping crane chicks and landscapes of nesting grounds. Workers in crane fits. Juveniles with their dad and mom. Birds in Canada, Nebraska, Texas and elements in-between.

As a longtime contributor and former staffer for “Nebraskaland Magazine,” Forsberg is understood for entrenching himself in his topics — whether or not it’s whooping cranes in his newest ebook or sandhill cranes in his first espresso desk image ebook — “On Ancient Wings.”

The ebook additionally accommodates a chapter entitled “Building the Backup Flock” by Rene Ebersole. This tells the fascinating story of Tex, Gee Whiz and Canus — three whooping cranes who’ve profoundly impacted the world’s present inhabitants of whooping cranes. Their story reminds readers of the human impacts on these extraordinary birds and the way science, love and customary sense problem-solving have helped preserve this species.

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Lastly, Forsberg shares a tip for the aspiring photographer: “I’ve found that the key to using blinds with cranes is to be in them before the birds arrive and to climb out of them only after they have left the area. It’s also necessary to live by the mantra of being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Blind work is a solitary experience. You must cope with being alone with your own thoughts, and often in physically awkward positions. Other challenges: weather extremes; myriad insects that buzz, bite and sting; knowing how to keep the blood flowing to your extremities at all times; and keeping your mind active. The moment you let your guard down is always when the action happens. Always.”

These phrases are a microcosm for dealing with troublesome conditions in conservation as an entire and for all times basically.

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This mindset has additionally allowed the inhabitants of one of many world’s rarest species that fell to fewer than 20 birds rise to roughly 830 recognized people as we speak with names like Yay, Nay and even Husker Red.
Michael Forsberg’s “Into Whooperland” reminds us to not let our guard down.

“Into Whooperland — A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes” not too long ago received the gold medal within the Nature class of the 2025 Independent Publisher Book Awards and is
obtainable at MichaelForsberg.com.