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Cranes quickly crossing South
By ALEX LEARY, Times Staff Writer CHASSAHOWITZKA -- As they cruise through the South on their way home, the flock of whooping cranes that spent the winter here has been reduced to four after one bird fell out of formation over Tennessee.
"I'm confident it will keep going," said Joe Duff, one of the pilots who led the cranes to Chassahowitzka using ultralight planes, which functioned as surrogate parents. After 126 days foraging in the Florida marshland, and dodging a bobcat or two, the cranes began flying north last week, giving renewed hope to the goal of reintroducing migratory cranes in the East. The five whoopers made significant progress over the past few days, impressing researchers with the straight path they have followed for a week. "They don't seem to be wandering or deviating at all," Duff said Monday. "It's a very positive first sign." As of Sunday, they had covered 328 miles in only two flight days, pausing three times for bad weather. By contrast, it took the cranes and ultralights nine flight days to cover the same distance. The flock departed Henry County in Georgia early Sunday and had flown for nearly six hours when trouble arose. Just before crossing into Tennessee, bird No. 7 dropped back, veering slightly to the west. When the day ended, the flock of four had traveled another 200 miles in eight hours, stopping at 5:45 p.m. in Fentress County in northern Tennessee. No. 7 flew 144 miles in nearly seven hours. Why No. 7 fell back is unknown. It could be that she was tired or did not catch one of the air thermals the cranes glide on. Duff suspects personality could have played a role. During the trip down, No. 7 veered from the flock and had to be recovered. She was occasionally standoffish while in Chassahowitzka. "When you leave them alone to travel on their own, you start to see the personalities come out," Duff said. Unlike the sandhill cranes used to test the migration route to Florida (and returned to Wisconsin without the help of man or machine), whooping cranes tend to travel in smaller flocks, so the stray bird may not be at a total loss. "We hope the migration instincts are positive in that bird as well as the rest," Duff said from Canada, where he and the rest of Operation Migration are in contact with the biologists tracking the birds in the field. The birds left Tennessee on Monday and were reported to be in Kentucky, though their exact location was unknown as of Monday afternoon.
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No. 7 may never catch the group, but researchers say there is still a good chance she will make it back to Wisconsin, where the birds began their amazing migration in October.
