WINSTON CO AL- Updated Operation Migration's Class of 2011 whooping
cranes will not be wintering in Florida this year. They seem to have settled
themselves into a winter location of their own choosing- Winston County,
Alabama. This is a first in the experimental reintroduction program's eleven-year
history the whooping cranes did not arrive at their Florida migration
destination.
The discussions at the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
annual meetings held over two days (yesterday and today) included consideration
of choosing an ultimate destination for the ultralight-led Class of 2012. While
the details of when and how are still being ironed out, we can tell you that
the nine young of the year will be crated and taken by road to the Wheeler
National Wildlife Refuge here in Alabama.
Wheeler is near Decatur, AL about 45 miles (as the crow flies) northeast of
their current pensite location as noted on the Operation Migration web site. The
move may happen tomorrow, or "as soon as humanly possible," says Liz
Condie, communications director of Operation Migration.
Even before the whooping cranes hatch, they are taught the sound of ultralight aircraft, which guide them along the migration route from Wisconsin to Florida in their first year. The cranes are led by the ultralights to their wintering grounds at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in the Florida Panhandle and the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. After learning how to forage and live in the wild, instinct tells the cranes to return north on their own in the spring.
The last attempt to get the birds in the Class of 2011 to
fly farther south came Sunday. But after a chaotic attempt in near-perfect
flying conditions, ultralight pilot Joe Duff reported that the cranes were no
longer interested in migrating, so they were returned to their pen in Winston
County, in northwest Alabama.
"Maybe we have stayed too long in Alabama, and for them the migration is over. Or, maybe they were just too long in one place,'' Duff wrote on the Operation Migration field journal.
"Whatever the cause, it is obvious we will not get
these birds to Florida this year in time to acclimate them to the wetlands and
St. Marks and Chassahowitzka.''
The cranes have been in Alabama since Dec.
11. Bad weather and issues concerning the FAA kept them grounded until a
temporary waiver was granted in early January. B Meyer, FMI: Operation Migration
-Update- The cranes by now, should be settling in their new Wheeler National Wildlife
Refuge home, arriving via crate in an air conditioned truck. Liz Condie wrote in their Field Journal:
I'm confident that I can say there is universal disappointment. We were charged
with a task - leading the cranes from Wisconsin
to the Whooping Crane Eastern
Partnership's choice of wintering sites. That we ten times successfully
completed that task before is small consolation for not being able to repeat
that feat this season.
However, perhaps Joe best summed up the rest of our thoughts when he said...
"Yes, of course we are disappointed, but in reality it makes little difference to the cranes. There is something, not entirely known, that stimulates a southern migration in birds. It may be temperature, or the angle of the sun, or a surge of hormones, but at some point that urge wears off.
Because of weather delays and south winds, we may have passed that point with the Class of 2011. In addition, these cranes are reaching the time in their lives when they become independent of their parents. In the end, none of this means much to the birds. They are still part of the Eastern Migratory Population and will still migrate back north. All that is left for us to do is to cross our fingers and hope they make it back to Wisconsin's White River State Wildlife Area." -UPDATED Feb 4-4:30pm