Weather Fouls Whooping Cranes’ Journey

January 4, 2010 — Dorothy only had to tap her heels together three times as she repeated “There’s no place like home” to get back to Kansas in the 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz.” Too bad that trick won’t work for Operation Migration, a non-profit organization that uses light-sport aircraft to return whooping cranes to eastern North America, teaching them the southern migration route. Seventy-three days after leaving Wisconsin’s Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, the group has completed 702 miles of its 1,285-mile trek and is in Franklin County, Alabama, where weather has kept them for the last nine days. Cold temperatures, high winds, low ceilings, and precipitation has made this year’s migration miserable, both for the birds and volunteers. Their journey will next take them through Georgia and Florida before they reach their final destinations at St. Marks and Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuges. According to the Operation Migration Field Journal, the 2009 migration has become the third consecutive 'multi-year' migration. In 2008, the birds arrived at their wintering home on January 23, 2009. Despite the weather and delays, the whoopers are doing fine. Field Reporter Liz Condie reports they are an active group. “They pace, do low fly-bys the length of the pen, pound the upturned footbath pans, attack the pumpkins, and then, like a wind-up toy run out of steam, calm down for a while before starting up again,” she wrote. But the group has also faced some disturbing news this season. Whooping crane 217 was shot and killed near Cayuga, Indiana between November 28 and December 1. This wasn’t just any whooping crane, however; it was the First Family matriarch, who, along with mate 211, are the only whooping cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population who thus far have successfully reared young. Earlier in November, someone broke into a Necedah Airport hangar that housed Operation Migration ultralights and equipment, causing $30,000 in damage. The project is led by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, which has set a goal of reintroducing 125 cranes, including 25 breeding pairs, at which point researchers believe the population would be self-sustaining. Want to hear what a whooping crane sounds like? Click to hear its unison call or its flight call.

Whooping cranes follow a light-sport aircraft during a December flight. Photo by Phil Free/Southern Company, www.operationmigration.org The whooping cranes follow their “mother” on one of the few flying days during the 2009 migration. Photo credit: Operation Migration The TrikeCam screen captures lead pilot Chris Gullikson. All Operation Migration volunteers wear costumes when by the birds to mask their human appearance. Photo by Nancy Maciolek Blake, www.operationmigration.org

• 2012 - 02/22 - Borschberg Begins Simulated 72-Hour Solar Flight
• 2012 - 02/20 - NASA Celebrates 50 Years of Americans in Space
• 2012 - 02/16 - Tiny Robots Swarm Fly in Formation
• 2012 - 02/16 - Civil War Balloon Replica to Take Flight This Summer
• 2012 - 02/09 - Application Deadline Approaches for EAA Scholarship