 |
The
chicks got their permanent leg bands and color codes after
their Florida arrival. The
birds were hooded during the exam so the handlers and
veterinarians could freely use their hands.
Photo Operation
Migration. |
It's
a Wrap!
The HY2005 ultralight-led chicks are done
with final health exams, and each wears a new permanent leg band with radio
transmitter
and
color codes
(see individual life story
pages for codes) that
will identify them for the rest of their lives. The pre-release
health exams and
banding were done at the Halpata
Tastanaki Preserve "holding site" on December 19-20. The cranes
were brought out two at a time. The veterinarian exam occurred at
one “station” while
banding took place at a second station. Angie
(a veterinarian) and Charlie helped. Meanwhile,
Richard and Mark towed the aircraft trailer
and one travel pen trailer to Chassahowitzka for storage. As usual, Mark
will winter in Florida to assist with the monitoring and care of
the new arrivals and the adult birds. Everyone else is well on their way
home after a long time away from families. Way to go, team!
As
for the four DAR chicks (#527, #528, #532, and #533),
three females are in Tennessee at this writing. The male's location
is unknown.
Their movements
will
be updated
on their life story pages every time we get news.
What's Next?
The
19 chicks will likely stay at this
temporary holding site until
all of the older birds have stopped at the Chass site and dispersed
to their inland wintering sites. The chicks will be let out
of the top-netted part of the pen to exercise during the day.
Then,
possibly
in mid-January,
the chicks will be led by ultralight OR crated and driven
to Chass. At Chass they'll fly free, coming and going
from their
winter pen. Even so, they'll be watched
over during their first winter by a monitoring team. Twice
each day, morning and night, Mark or Sara or another team member
will take the 40-minute airboat ride to the cranes' remote
pen
site to check on them. They'll slog through the black muck
of the marsh, trying to keep their rubber boots from being
sucked
off by the mud. They'll fill water pails and crane chow feeders
and take notes on the birds. Their final job each evening will
be activating the electric fence. Any predator would get zapped
with a good jolt of electricity. This is
necessary to protect the priceless and still-inexperienced
birds inside.
The
young cranes will will learn about delicious, nutritious blue
crabs. They will
learn
about
tides.
They'll have a blast probing for snails and playing with the
black sludge. They'll roost in water at night. And if their
instincts are correct, they'll head north to
the
Wisconsin wetlands in spring.
Goals
This
year's four DAR chicks
are part of the next steps in the reintroduction effort: seeing
if experienced whoopers
in the flock will lead released captive-bred, costume-reared
chicks on migration. Eventually,
the pilots will stop leading birds with the ultralights—but
not until the flock reaches 25 breeding pairs.
They hope the experienced cranes will take over teaching the
route
to released
chicks as
well
as their
own
chicks — and we all hope 2006 will bring the very first
whooper chicks hatched by the now-wild "ultra-cranes" in
Wisconsin. The goal? A flock of 125 birds in Wisconsin by 2020,
including 25 nesting pairs. At this writing, and including the
2005 ultralight-led migration of 19 chicks, the new Eastern flock
has 64 whooping
cranes! You can keep
up with the life
story of every one.
Signing
Off Till Spring 2006
In mythology, whooping cranes represent long lives, peace,
and tranquility. That is our wish for this young flock of ancestors
of the whooping cranes YOUR descendants will see in the skies over
the Midwest and East. This is Jane Duden saying "over and
out" at the end of the 2005 ultralight-led migration. Please join
us
again in the spring to track these youngsters on their first unaided
journey north.
