The 2009 class of young Whooping Cranes will depart from their home at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin this Saturday, October 10. They'll fly behind ultralight planes piloted by the good folks at Operation Migration, who will lead them to two refuges in Florida. (I shot the photo above on departure day a few years ago.)
The 21 birds in this year's class will be the latest additions to the eastern migratory flock, which currently numbers 77 adult cranes. This will be the ninth generation of Whooping Cranes to fly behind the ultralights.
Read about our exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour at Necedah, where we found thriving white birds, courting pairs, and one lucky chick.
Read about tornadoes that killed 17 young Whooping Cranes in Florida in February 2007.
To date, the pilots and birds have covered 9,777.2 miles. This fall, somewhere over Illinois, Operation Migration will fly its 10,000 mile in the effort to bring cranes back to eastern North America. To mark the achievement, the organization has launched its Give a Whoop! campaign. Contribute $10, and each morning during the migration, you'll receive OM's e-mail newsletter. Plus, you could win great prizes, including a trip to Necedah.
In other developments this fall:
• Leaders of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership met at Necedah last month to evaluate where they're at and to chart next steps. The group included George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation, Tom Stehn, Whooping Crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Terry Peacock, refuge manager at St. Marks NWR in Florida. In all, 63 people crammed into a room to discuss the cranes. Their most significant challenge: nesting failures. Most pairs abandon their nests after laying eggs, and biologists are pointing more toward black flies as a possible cause. No word yet on how they might manage the problem.
• For the first time, a crane chick died after colliding with an ultralight during training. Joe Duff, lead pilot and head of Operation Migration, described how it happened in a September 1 Field Journal post.
• The wild flock that winters at Aransas NWR in Texas, which lost 23 birds last winter, found excellent breeding habitat at Wood Buffalo National Park this summer, but only 22 chicks fledged from 62 nests. Read Tom Stehn's Whooping Crane Report for more.
• The Whooping Crane recovery is one of many success stories that Jane Goodall writes about in her new book, Hope for Animals and Their World. She describes the thrill of flying in an ultralight in "the tiny passenger seat in the space behind Joe [Duff].... I wanted to go on flying forever, suspended between heaven and earth with those exquisite young whooping cranes."
Check back later this week for an update. I'm leading a media tour for members of the Society of Environmental Journalists on Thursday. We're going to Necedah to meet the crew and watch the morning training flight, and we're also going to hear from George Archibald at the International Crane Foundation. --M.M.