As usual, the good people at Operation Migration are helping the captive-born whooping cranes (Grus americana) fly south to their wintering grounds in Florida. To give you an idea of how hard this is, the whole megillah starts in Wisconsin where the cranes breed, and then it moves south in hops, with the ultralight plane taking off daily as the whoopers follow. Today’s departure is delayed because of fog, but you can see it by clicking on the screenshot below. Keep an eye on it to see if the fog lifts.
If they don’t fly today, they’ll take off Monday, but reader Tara Tanaka promises to be there when they fly near her home in a few days. Let’s hope she’ll give us some good video!
Meanwhile, here’s a YouTube video of the operation; the action starts at about 7 minutes in. Note that the pilot is wearing a whooping crane suit:
Yes, sometimes people can be good, like those who dedicate so much of their time to saving a single species of bird.
They still have one or two more stops before the final fly-over at St. Marks NWR, depending on how many miles they might be able to log today and/or tomorrow. No days off for these dedicated pilots – they are completely at the mercy of the weather, and the cooperation of the young Whooping Cranes. One bird, “02-15,” has been crated and driven the last leg or two due to her disruptive behavior in the air – a kind of “time out” for Whooping Cranes.
“megillah” ?
sounds like something out of a Queen song.
from Wictionary, “Any long, boring story.”
Quite the story. Without the invention of Ultralight aircraft, not likely this could ever have been done.
Sub
Has everyone forgotten the great fictional movie about this very project?: “Fly Away Home” http://bit.ly/1Q5O6Om
The full movie is available here:
http://bit.ly/207lA3B
Oops! The link to the IMDB listing is really here (I think):
http://imdb.to/207lCIP
I watched most of that the other night, and it meant so much more since I’ve been involved with the cranes. It said it was based on a true story.
Oh good, can’t wait to see Tara’s vids (or stills) & report on this stopover! This has been one long journey!
They rain has just cleared their current location, but the winds have picked up with the passage of the cold front, so they’re grounded today. Their ETA at St. Marks is now Tues. or Wed., depending on whether they skip one stop over. They spend the night not far north of Tallahassee as their next to final stop, and then on their last traveling day they do a fly-over for the crowd in the small coastal town of St. Marks and are then led just a few more miles to their out of the way wintering grounds in the St. Marks NWR.
I just found this short clip from the class of 2012 that I’d uploaded to Vimeo:
You can hear the excitement of the crowd as they approach, as well as a comment by my husband at the end – his comments are always followed by “OH – are you shooting video???”.
That vid was great fun!
I was watching the cranes (via website) almost daily in October/November; ’twas looking for a while like they’d never get out of Wisconsin! An amazing amount of time and effort goes into this project!