Operation Migration pilots teaching a flock of nine whooping crane chicks to migrate were like rodeo cowboys Tuesday.
Operation Migration Inc. pilots teaching a flock of nine whooping crane chicks to migrate were like rodeo cowboys Tuesday, trying to round up some errant birds and move them to their next stop in Alabama.
Tuesday was the first day the birds flew since Jan. 18. They were grounded for 35 days for Christmas and while pilots addressed an issue with the Federal Aviation Administration. The birds are being led from Wisconsin to Florida in hopes they learn to migrate.
“They got off, but two of them didn't leave the pen,” said Liz Condie, Operation Migration's chief operating officer and director of communications and fund development, about Tuesday's misadventure.
The pilots decided not to immediately worry about the two birds that refused to fly as they had their hands full with the other seven chicks, which were not cooperating.
The three pilots wrestled with the seven chicks for almost an hour and a half trying to move them from Franklin County, Ala., to the next stop on the migration. After all that time, and burning fuel, the pilots decided to settle the birds at an “unofficial” stop — a grassy strip with an alcove, where they could tuck the birds away — five miles from the takeoff pen.
As they tried to settle the seven chicks down, two took off and returned to the pen to join the two that had refused to fly. It was decided to crate the four birds and truck them to the new site in Winston County, Ala., where the crew located the property's owner, who gave permission for the birds to be on his land.
“He was thrilled and delighted,” Condie said.
When asked if the time the birds were unable to fly affected their willingness to follow the ultralight planes as they had been trained to do, Condie said, “We're guessing ... We have to believe it does.”
Bad weather kept the birds on the ground Wednesday, the 87th day of the roughly 1,285-mile migration, and again on Thursday, the 88th day.
The birds took off on Oct. 9 from the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area, southeast of Necedah, Wis. They will fly to the St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge, south of Tallahassee in Florida's Big Bend area, where half of the flock will spend the winter. The other birds will continue to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River, their winter home.
Before reaching Chassahowitzka, the birds will make a stop at the Halpata Tastanaki Preserve, about two miles from the Marion County-Dunnellon Airport, and will fly over the airport so the public can see the rare and endangered birds.
Come spring, the whoopers will return on their own to Wisconsin.
The birds are part of an effort by a partnership of government and private agencies from Canada and the United States, including Operation Migration, to ensure the survival of the endangered species.
Before the birds hatch, the sound of ultralight aircraft is played near the eggs. After they hatch, they are fed and cared for by people wearing whooping crane costumes and carrying crane puppets. No one ever speaks near the birds to prevent them from attaching to humans. The hope is the birds will imprint on the ultralight planes with their costumed pilots so they will follow the aircraft and learn to migrate. The idea is to create a second migratory flock of whoopers in the event the only existing wild migrating flock, which flies from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast every fall, should become diseased or die off.
This is the 11th year of the eastern migration effort.
The longest migration, 97 days, was in 2007. Days of grounding for bad weather are included in each count, but other days of grounding are not.
"Today is Day 87 [of] migration," Condie said Wednesday. “There are only 11 stops between us and the finish. That's if we hit them all. Historically, from here on down we usually have a couple of skips. We usually start getting decent weather. Give us 10 days of good flying weather and we are done.”