Winging to Boone County, IN (+49.4
Miles)
November 3, 2006: Migration Day 30
|
|
Photo Operation Migration
|
More
Progress!
From 200 feet altitude in his test flight this morning,
Brooke gave the
GO! The scramble to get airborne began. Today was Richard's turn
as lead trike and 16 birds followed him on take off.
Two birds flew with Brooke. But soon the birds
started to break off. They didn't want to climb
higher where the air was calmer. They wanted to turn around and go
back to the pen! That
meant a full scale sky rodeo. Joe picked
up 3 and was soon out of sight. To keep the birds with him, Richard
had to drop down, go back and forth over a highway with trucks that
scared
the birds, go up again, drop down again, and even circle
around to keep them on
course.
About
17
miles
from
the destination,
that culprit #615 began
to drop down
again. Chris zipped
in with his trike and picked up the independent little chick. Together
they battled trashy air to climb up and head on course. Richard and
the 12 remaining
birds carried on with 16 more miles to go. Said Richard, "Without
#615 I found the birds much more eager to follow and we really picked
up
the pace,
reaching a ground speed of 54 miles per hour."
It was a cold day, but Richard was sweating by the time he landed
with all his birds at Stopover #8 in Boone County, IN. All the birds
and pilots are safely on the ground. Hooray!
In the Classroom
-
Migration Math: Click on Operation Migration's chart with day-by-day comparisons for all migrations. You'll see that in 2001 the migration was in Indiana only 4 nights. How many nights did they spend in Indiana in 2002? 2003? 2004? 2005? What's the average time to cross Indiana in the new flock's first five years?
Journey North is pleased to feature this educational adventure presented in cooperation with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP).
Copyright
2006 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our
feedback form.