Still
Grounded in Terrell County, GA
+0 Miles
As forecasted, rain moved into the area: no
flight today. Some of the crew will help at the
new Marion County, Florida stopover site today. They will work on final touches
to the pen, and put up the top-net on
the smaller
holding pen. This is where they young cranes
are headed. After they arrive, the team will decide if and when to take
the final flight to the winter home
at Chassahowitzka NWR. What does the decision depend upon? Read on:
A New Plan for the 2005 Chicks
There are
now 41 birds in the reintroduced eastern flock. They migrate
on their own to Chassahowitzka NWR where the ultralights
dropped them off in their first year. The pen has no top net so the
birds have freedom to come and go as they learn to be wild. So far,
21 big white whoopers have already
arrived in Florida. These "oldsters" check out the pen, hoping
for free food like in the old days when they were chicks there. They
think
of this as THEIR site. If the younger birds had arrived, the adults
might
fight
with
them or
drive them
off "their" territory. Do you see the problem here? The
team thinks a new site is needed for the
2005 cohort
until
all the
adult birds have arrived, checked out the pen, found nothing there,
and spread out
to better
locations.
By stopping "early" and
using Halpata Tastanaki Preserve as a temporary holding site for a few weeks,
the team hopes the older cranes will have cleared out of the Chassahowitzka
pen site. So, if older birds are stil at the Chassahowitzka
pen
site, the team will
end this migration temporarily at Halpata. By mid-January the Project
Direction Team will have to decide whether to leave the birds there
or to move
them to Chassahowitzka. The lives of these birds are valuable, and
the team wants them safe.
The
Arrival Fly-over Celebration is Coming! (Soon, we hope!)
This year's arrival event is at a new place, too: the Dunnellon/Marion
County Airport in Florida. The area
around the Dunnellon Airport is not built up, and it's close to the Halpata
Preserve where the chicks will land. That means guests will get one
of the best-ever flyover views as the cranes and planes descend into
Halpata.
The fly-over site
is close enough to the pens that the pilots and migration crew will
be able to join the event within minutes of landing. It will be a fabulous
chance to see the cranes, planes, pilots and team! Now all we need
is the right weather for it to happen.
