Key Timeline Events
Hatch Year 2010

Make your own Timeline as you follow the exciting journey!

Oct. 25 DAR birds (11 of them!) released on Necedah NWR with older Whooping cranes
Oct. 29 With no departure today, the record for the most number of Down Days ever spent at the Winnebago County stopover site was broken. Finally the weather alowed a takeoff again on October 31.
Oct. 10 Migration begins!
Oct. 8 This take-off with the birds was meant to be the migration departure. But when they met with headwinds aloft, the pilots decided it would be too tough to lead the youngs birds the whole 23 miles to stopover #1. It became a training flight instead.
Oct. 5 Target departure date! Changed to Oct. 6.
Sep. 9 Both Cohorts now at same pen site
July 27 Chicks 4-10 and 11-10 arrived at Necedah NWR on July 27 after a 1,000 mile road trip from Laurel, MD to join the Class of 2010.
July 20 Today 11 chicks for Direct Autumn Release (DAR) arrived from ICF, where the birds were hatched and raised by costumed biologists. The chicks will spend the remainder of the summer at the refuge, under the watchful eye and supervision of costumed staff from ICF and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They will be set free this fall to learn the migration route by following older cranes heading south.
July 9 Cohort Two birds (#10-10, #15-10, #16-10, and #17-10) arrive in Wisconsin and will stay at the Canfield pen site until they are ready to be joined with Cohort One birds later. (Chicks #4-10 and #11-10 were still recovering from their infections and remained in Maryland.)
June 30 Cohort One birds (1-10, 2-10, 3-10, 5-10, 6-10, 8-10, 9-10) arrive in Wisconsin in individual crates aboard a private plane. (Chick #4-10, recovering from an infection, will come later with cohort 2 birds.)
May 1 Chicks for the 2010 ultralight flock began hatching at Maryland's Patuxent WRC. Chicks start training with the trike (without its wing) when they are just a few days old.


Try This! Journaling Question
  • How do this year's events compare with the same events for last year's chicks in the new Eastern flock? For comparison, see: 2009 Timeline Events.

A costumed pilot drives the trike around the outside of the circle pen with the little chick safely inside."Robo-crane" drops mealworms to encourage the little chick to follow the plane as it drives around the fence in a circle.

Photo H. Ray, WCEP

 

Journey North is pleased to feature this educational adventure made possible by the
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP).