Whooping Cranes Half-Way Home

December 9, 2008 — Down days have become common, and flying days few, which explains why a gaggle of young whooping cranes following their ultralight “parents” to their Florida wintering grounds have traveled only 645 miles of the 1,250-mile route. As of today, the cranes were in Hardin County, Tennessee for their fourth down day in a row. And if the weather forecast is correct, they will be there a while longer. The effort is called Operation Migration, and the four ultralights and14 juvenile cranes are following a new, safer route this year, passing through Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia to reach the birds’ wintering habitats at Chassahowitzka and St. Marks National Wildlife refuges along Florida's Gulf Coast. Nasty weather — high winds, rain, snow and frost— has meant 44 down days out of the 54 since the group departed Wisconsin’s Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. Nasty weather isn’t just a problem for the birds; it can also play havoc on the ultralights. Joe Duff wrote in the November 27 field journal: “A stall in an aircraft is when the wing can not generate enough lift to keep the aircraft flying and it begins to fall. I felt the controls grow heavy in my hands as we sunk and I knew that my wing was reminding me that she doesn’t like the cold. She dangled me there, an inch away from a hard landing in a muddy field that would have sent us both end over end. The lesson lasted long enough to ensure it will never be forgotten, and then, at the last possible moment, she let go of my throat and gradually began to fly again.” But despite the weather, the migration has been filled with good memories. “One would think the best of migration times would be while flying with the birds, but in fact, for me, it is the 'just having flown' time, the arrival time,” Brooke Pennypacker wrote in the November 30 field journal. “The period just after landing from a long flight when the birds are still exuberant from effort and challenge, more than a little shy because of their new surrounds, but hugely inquisitive, alert, and, most endearing of all, they are most trusting. “They surround you in quick animated motions and look up at you with cocked heads, their piercing eyes asking, “OK, Big Bird, you brought us here, now what?” This is the eighth group of birds to take part in the reintroduction by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, an international coalition of public and private groups. Today, there are only about 525 birds in existence, 375 of them in the wild. Aside from the 68 birds reintroduced by WCEP, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests in the Northwest Territories of Canada and Texas Gulf Coast.

Two whoopers have a little stand off on Monday, when the birds were let out of their pen to get some exercise and let off some steam. Photo credit: Operation Migration Whooper 812 flies overhead as a photographer hides in the tall grass below. Photo credit: Operation Migration The handlers gather the flock and guide them back into the safety of the pen. Photo credit: Operation Migration

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