Whooping Crane
 

No Go for 10. Health Checks for 10 (+0 Miles)
January 15, 2010: Migration Day 84

What is happening in this photo at St. Marks NWR? Click the photo for a slide show.
Photo: Eva Szyszkoski, International Crane Foundation



For the "Chass" Ten this is day #2 of waiting. Headwinds aloft are too strong for the cranes and planes to handle.

For the St. Marks ten, settled in their brand new pen-within-a-pen, it's health check day. Today they will get fitted with the leg band colors that will identify them for the rest of their lives. We'll soon post the new color code on each crane's bio page. Check these bio pages in the coming months and years as the cranes' futures unfold. You will find news of their migrations, future mate choices and nesting success when at last they are old enough to lay eggs and raise chicks.

For you in the classrooms, it's a day to enjoy Brooke's comments about the flight to St. Marks. It's a chance to think about your own lives with our questions (see below). We'll be back tomorrow!

 

In the Classroom

• (a) Upon takeoff, Brooke noticed: "The ten had a collective thought balloon hanging just above them that said, “Hey, something ain’t right here! Where is everybody?” as their other ten flockmates called out from the second pen below. So around we went . . .
We would no sooner collect as a unit and start on course when one, then two, and then the rest would break and head back for the pen. But the trike is a persuasive tool. Months of intensive training rise to the occasion at such times, and after a period of forever, we were collected up on course to St Marks." When in your own life have you been unsure because you were doing something differently from the main group?
• (b) "As we made our descent through the trashy air above the marsh, the birds' flight behavior began to change; each bird staring down in awe and anticipation at all that water and marsh, and a special excitement rippled through them. . . .Soon into their vision appeared the pen and the two white costumed figures, their arms flapping up and down and the loud haler coaxing for a landing. Then, with a low pass over the pen, 910 landed, followed shortly by the others as I climbed in tight spirals above." Tell about a time when you felt a similar way when you came to an exciting new experience or place.

Journey North is pleased to feature this educational adventure presented in cooperation with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP).

© 1997 – 2019 Journey North. All rights reserved.