Thursday, November 27, 2008 4:32 PM CST
Whooping cranes follow ultralights along new migratory route over local counties
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
MONTROSE — The small band of nearly extinct cranes is being heralded not by the bleating song of migratory birds in flight, but by the hum of ultralight aircraft engines.
The team from Operation Migration — which is attempting to re-teach migration routes to endangered whooping cranes by training them to follow the 350-pound, single-wing aircraft — was slated to depart early Thanksgiving morning after 14 birds spent the night at a rural Cumberland County farm.
Along with four ultralight pilots, a propeller airplane pilot and seven vehicle drivers, the cranes left the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin last month. Their layover in Cumberland County on Wednesday night was just another stop on the new leg of a route to the Florida marshland where the birds will spend the winter.
And it’s only a one-way trip for the humans: The whooping cranes will know the route when they migrate back next spring, and this information should be passed on from generation to generation.
“So far, the new route’s been going really well,” said Joe Duff, pilot and co-founder of Operation Migration, during an interview Wednesday afternoon at a campsite north of Montrose.
He and co-founder Bill Lishman have been profiled by numerous news media, including “60 Minutes,” and the film “Fly Away Home” was based on their efforts. They started Operation Migration in 1993 by teaching Canada geese to follow an ultralight. Now, they are hoping to revive the almost-extinct whooping crane population.
In the 1940s, only 15 cranes were known to exist, and they all belonged to a population in Canada’s Northwest Territories that migrated yearly to the Texas Gulf Coast. There are now more than 250 whooping cranes, and their numbers are growing. But there’s still a problem: “They’re all in one flock,” said Duff. “That’s the only naturally occurring flock.”
And all it would take to wipe out the entire species would be a severe hurricane, chemical spill or avian disease. That’s why Operation Migration is trying to establish new whooping crane populations along new migratory routes. “We needed a new flock,” Duff said.
Migration is key to the survival of whooping cranes, and Duff said there is historical evidence that they used to migrate through this part of the country. Unfortunately, migratory routes are learned only from the birds’ parents, and their last regular flight over this area was sometime in the mid- to late-1800s.
“We stepped in with the technique of leading birds with ultralights,” said Duff. “We act as surrogate parents.”
Whooping crane eggs are incubated and hatched at the Patuxent Research Refuge near Washington, D.C. Even before they leave their eggs, the chicks listen to recordings of ultralight engines and adult crane calls.
In an effort to minimize the birds’ exposure to people, handlers dress in white, hooded garments (which strongly resemble haz-mat suits) and goggles to mimic adult cranes. Spectators are not allowed to be in close proximity to the birds at any point during their training or migration — even when they land for the night, the cranes are kept in isolation in camouflaged pens set up beforehand by the Operation Migration ground crew.
“They’ve never seen a normally dressed human,” said Duff.
Training begins when the birds are 2 weeks old, well before they can fly. An ultralight’s wing is detached, and the remaining “trike” circles a 30-foot diameter pen. The chicks inside learn to chase the wingless vehicle.
Once they mature, the birds are airlifted to the Necedah refuge in Wisconsin, where the cranes are housed in “wet” and dry pens. There’s also an ultralight runway, and the birds try to run after the aircraft until they are able to take flight themselves. Then it’s just a matter of building their strength while they grow accustomed to following the ultralights.
An aircraft’s wing tips create air vortices that the birds “surf” in a V-formation, said Duff, who noted whooping cranes are not as social as waterfowl and would not normally migrate in such large groups.
The new flock left Wisconsin on Oct. 17, and they are headed for marshland in Florida. In fact, the “cohort” will be split in two once they get closer to their destination, as half the birds will be taken to a new wintering site at St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge south of Tallahassee, while the remainder are bound for an existing site at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River.
In February, a storm killed 17 birds at Chassahowitzka, all but wiping out the “Class of 2006” led by Operation Migration two years ago. “It really set us back a long way,” said Duff.
For the last seven years, the route to Chassahowitzka has veered east once it reaches the Chicago area. This has meant flying over the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee, which can create hazardous turbulence for the ultralight pilots.
The team departed from the LaSalle area on Nov. 21 and had enough of a tailwind to fly twice as far that day and skip their planned stop in Livingston County. On Wednesday, after staying five nights in Piatt County, the weather finally let them take off again, although they met with a 10-mph headwind. It took them almost two-and-a-half hours to travel about 56 miles to Cumberland County.
With no headwind, the birds can fly at 38 mph. The entire migration route spans 1,285 miles. The team has planned 23 flying days; however, they can only take to the skies in nearly perfect weather.
Inclement conditions notwithstanding, the birds can gain altitude at a rate of 100 feet per minute and cruise at 1,000 to 2,000 feet. But sometimes they go as low as 100 feet.
Once in Florida, the birds will stay in a four-acre, open-top pen surrounding six- to 10-inch deep waterways. The birds forage for food outside of the pen by day, and return at night to roost by standing upright in the marsh.
Officials hope to increase the population of the Wisconsin-Florida flock to 125, including 25 pairs of breeding birds. This trip will bring the total to 88 birds, with 11 sets of parents.
For more information, visit www.operationmigration.org.
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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