Ocala.com - Ocala,FL,USA
BY SUSAN LATHAM CARR:
| Even though the weather close to the earth's surface was clear and calm in Gordon County, Ga., on Friday, winds at 2,000 feet were 15-30 miles per hour. So, the 17 whooping crane chicks that are making their first-ever migration from Wisconsin to Florida following small ultralight aircraft were grounded for the day. Friday marks the 73rd day into the 1,250-mile trip. So far, the juvenile whooping cranes have traveled 811.1 miles. Operation Migration pilots left Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin on Oct. 13 with the chicks following the ultralight aircraft. This is the seventh year Operation Migration pilots have led whooping crane chicks on their first migration in hopes of teaching the whoopers how to migrate in order to establish a viable eastern migratory flock of the endangered birds. During this migration, the birds were grounded in Cumberland County, Tenn., for 23 days because of weather conditions and then it was decided to allow staff members to take a quick break for the holidays. The staff returned to Cumberland County and the birds on Dec. 29 to resume the migration. The birds took flight the following day and made it over the Cumberland Ridge, the most difficult stretch of the migration. But on Friday, winds, once again, delayed the contingent's take-off. Weather conditions will determine when the birds will get to Florida, the last leg of the migration. Near the end of the migration, the birds fly over the Dunnellon Airport for a public viewing on their way to the Halpata Tastanaki Preserve before the chicks are led to their final destination at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River. For more information, go to: www.operationmigration.org. Susan Latham Carr may be reached at susan.carr@starbanner.com or 352-867-4156. Operation Migration was founded in 1994 as a non- profit charitable organization by Bill Lishman and Joe Duff. That was five years after Bill became the first human to fly with birds, and one year after the two artists, turned biologists, used ultralight aircraft to lead a small flock of Canada geese from Ontario, Canada to Virginia, USA. The unassisted return migration of these geese the following spring garnered world-wide attention that led to the making of the hit movie Fly Away Home with Columbia Pictures.  To perfect techniques, and ensure that once released, birds conditioned to follow their ultralights would remain wild, several migration studies were conducted with non-endangered Sandhill cranes in subsequent years. The results of these studies were evaluated by the Canada / United States Whooping Crane Recovery Team. Like many birds, Whooping cranes learn their migration route by following their parents. But this knowledge is lost when the species is reduced and there are no longer any wild birds using the flyway. Until Operation Migration was asked by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to spearhead a reintroduction of the world's most endangered cranes, there was no method of teaching migration to captive reared Whooping cranes released into the wild. In the first five years of the program, approximately 60 birds have been taught a migration route between Wisconsin and Florida. This is 4 times the number that existed in the early 1940's. Operation Migration Inc works in partnership with nine private and government agencies known collectively as the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. |
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