Whoopers reach first of two winter homes

January 19, 2008 —Just over three months and more than 1,100 miles after they first departed Wisconsin, a group of young whooping cranes following their ultralight “parents” to learn the migration route arrived at their wintering home in Jefferson County, Florida. The Operation Migration team led the seven whoopers to the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge on January 17, while the seven others are continuing their flight south to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, 65 miles north of St. Petersburg. The second group of whoopers should arrive later this week, weather permitting. The birds are being divided into two groups after a storm last year killed the 2007 class. According to the Operation Migration Field Journal, the birds weren’t too anxious to reach their wintering grounds, first flying off course and then being tempted to land at the St. Marks River. But the pilots persuaded the birds to follow them, flying over an estimated 2,000-plus people who waited in the cold to see the birds arrive. “Without a doubt the largest gathering for an Arrival Flyover in all of the eight years we've been leading whooping cranes to Florida,” Liz Condie wrote in the Field Journal. “The keen interest and enthusiasm of the folks in the St. Marks area knocked our socks off.” The Operation Migration flight is part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership project, now in its eighth year, which is working to reintroduce a migratory flock of whooping cranes to the eastern United States. The partnership consists of nine government and private sector organizations. There are now 73 migratory whooping cranes in the wild in eastern North America – including the first whooping crane chick to hatch in the wild in Wisconsin in more than a century. Project recovery plans outline ultralight-led migrations and chick releases through at least 2010, or until the goal of a self-sustaining migratory population of 100-120 individuals and 25-30 breeding pairs is achieved. .

More than 2,000 people waited very patiently in the chilly temperatures for St. Marks NWR's first flock of whooping cranes to fly overhead. Photo credit: Operation Migration. The whooping cranes didn’t flap as they flew over the public flyover location in St. Marks. Instead, they glided by, riding the vortices created by the wing of the aircraft. Photo credit: Operation Migration. Pilot Richard van Heuvelen led the cranes 28 miles from the Jefferson County, Florida stopover to the new winter pen site located in an isolated salt marsh area of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Photo credit: Operation Migration

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