Patience Paying off for Operation Migration

December 9, 2011—Webster’s Dictionary defines patience as the will or ability to wait or endure without complaint. Volunteers with Operation Migration are likely running very low on patience these days, and have good reason to complain. This year, a group of volunteers flying weight-shift trike LSAs to teach nine young whooping cranes the migration route from Wisconsin to Florida has learned all about patience. That’s because in the 62 days they’ve been en route to Florida, weather—mostly rain and winds—have kept the planes and birds grounded for much of the time. Earlier this month, they spent five consecutive days on the ground in Union County, Kentucky. In late November, they spent 10 consecutive days grounded in Piatt County, Illinois. Earlier in November, they spent 13 down days in Livingston City, Illinois. In fact, the group spent 33 days in Illinois, 28 of those going nowhere. Joe Duff writes of their frustration with the weather in their Field Journal: “If you had told us when we landed at Livingston County that we were going to be there for half a month, the frustration level would have been unbearable. Instead, our disappointment grew a day at a time like the crush of a constrictor slowly squeezing the spirit out the birds and us. We set our sights on so many days that were forecast to be good, only to have our hopes blown away by a consistent wind that even the locals said was unusual.” But Friday, December 9, the group finally made it out of Kentucky and into Tennessee in a rare case where weather allowed them to fly for two consecutive days. They are currently in Franklin County, Alabama, and have traveled more than 600 miles in their 1,286-mile trip to Florida’s Chassahowitzka and St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuges. Operation Migration, which has played a leading role in the reintroduction of endangered Whooping cranes into eastern North America since 2001.is a founding partner of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, the coalition of non-profit organizations and government agencies behind the project to safeguard the endangered Whooping crane from extinction.

Whopping cranes follow an ultralight to learn the migration route. Photo credit: Operation Migration When the birds refuse to leave wet areas, volunteers dressed as swamp monsters and sometimes in kayaks are called out to “encourage” the birds to move on. Photo credit: Operation Migration

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