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November
16,
2005
Migration Day 34
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Pilot's
Helmet Photo W. Kryduba |
Stormy
Weather Makes Headlines
+0 Miles
Tornadoes blew through areas near the stopover site yesterday. Thankfully,
none came near our birds, but sadly many people in Indiana lost their
homes. the storm system that brought tornadoes is now far to
the east, but the wind is still blowing hard at Muscatatuck National
Wildlife
Refuge. With sleet mixed in, the team is going nowhere for yet another
day.
No whoopers are moving back in Wisconsin this week, either. The four direct autumn release (DAR) juveniles are hanging out together on the refuge. This week they mostly acted independently of the staging sandhill flocks and older whooping cranes. The tracking team has replaced some transmitters on older birds as they wait for them to start migration. All birds in the eastern flock now carry functional VHF transmitters except for #107 (at Wisconsin's Horicon NWR). Trackers do not know the status of the transmitter on #309, the strayed whooping crane last seen in New York.
Two Yearling Girls Reach Florida!
Seven
of the one-year-old whoopers left Wisconsin Nov. 9. Males
#402, 403, 412, 416, and 417 were
roosting at a spot in Tennessee on Nov.
10. And the BIG news: Females #419 and #420, who veered a little
to the east on their way
south, reached Madison County, Florida
yesterday. They're almost home for the winter!
News
from the Natural Wild Flock, Migrating from Canada to Texas
Meanwhile,
an estimated
55% of the flock had reached Texas by Nov. 9. Remember
the female bird banded in 1977
who
recently
passed
away in
Saskatchewan
while on migration? (She was the
oldest color-banded crane on record.) She left her mate
and a new chick when she died at the remarkable age of 28. Her mate
has already found a new partner
at
Aransas. The Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock also has a 27-year-old male
bird who may soon
break the record for the oldest known Whooping crane in the wild.
| Track the Migration Use our map or make your own with this migration data. (Click map to enlarge.) |
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| Keep a Migration Journal • Today's Question: Think about the route and the progress of the 7 yearling whoopers who are migrating WITHOUT their funny little yellow "parents" (the ultralight planes) this year. What can you say about the merit of the idea to lead them south with ultralights when they had no wild parents to do the job? • History: Check Operation Migration's chart. What do you notice about the second half of each migration compared to the first half? Why do you think this is so? What do you predict as an arrival date in Florida this year?
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Journey North is pleased to feature this educational adventure presented in cooperation with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP).
Copyright
2005 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
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