Personality and Training: Crane chick #1-13 is the oldest, biggest, and most dominant bird in the Class of 2013. Right away, Joe called her their "Make My Day" bird for her attitude. She hatched from an egg rescued from the abandoned nest of parents #9-05 and #13-03, who learned their migration route from the ultralight plane just as she will do. Her sibling is Chick #4, who hatched from the same parents' other rescued egg.

Crane #1 remained the Alpha lady of the group both in Maryland and after the Class of 2013 arrived in Wisconsin.

By mid July, she and and# 2-13 were already able to skip a few steps as they followed the trike and very soon #1-13 was first to fly a good distance of the runway.  It won’t be long before #2-13 is following after her.  Give them a week or two, and they’ll all be catching ground effect off the wing.

By July 26 #1 had just learned to fly. She promptly flew off into the marsh behind the pen and stayed there! Meanwhile, the others had a good training session with the trike and went obediently back into the pen. Then the pilots coaxed #1 out of the marsh and led her to the trike for some treats and trike time. She followed the trike downwind to the north end of the runway but on the return trip she flew up above the wing and then veered right and flew back into the marsh behind the pen. Again she was easily led out and  back to the trike and given treats at the trike. After some trike time she obediently followed back into the pen.

On July 29, #1 spent most of her time in the field. She poked around for tasty insects while pilot Brooke continued training the other seven chicks. After Brooke made a couple more runs with all of them flapping and following behind him, #1-13 finally decided to join the party. She came flying out of the field and flew the length of the runway, showing off her new-found flight abilities. She might have been bragging to the others: "THIS is how it's done!"

By July 31 most of the birds were following the trike up and down the runway. But #1-13 doesn’t always like running with the pack. She can easily go 40 feet in the air and fly the length of the runway. She likes to go exploring.  Sometimes, she’ll meet up with the trike on her own. Other days, she needs a little one-on-one help escaping the marshy wilderness.  The pilots hope that she will learn to lock onto the "sweet spot" on the wing and then enjoy flying with the group. With a 5-day age spread among this year’s cohort, all were flying by August 7. Pilots hope all will fall into a line, including #1!

Fall 2013: Ultralight-Guided Migration South

October 14, 2013: Migration Day 13! After 11 down days and an attempted flight Oct. 9, they finally got a great day to fly! All eight cranes came out of the pen, took off and covered the distance with lead pilot Brooke. Two flew off his left wing and six off his right: perfect, and a wonderful surprise!

October 17, 2013: Migration Day 16 Another successful flight with all eight young Whooping cranes sticking with lead pilot Richard van Heuvelen for the entire 28 miles. The flight to Columbia County, WI lasted 42 minutes.

October 22, 2013: Migration Day 21 Crane #1 was one of just two cranes to fly the 39 miles on today's turbulent flight to Green County, Wisconsin! The six others dropped out in three locations, causing a flurry of worry and activity — but, at the end of the day, all eight birds as well as the crew were safely at Stopover #4.

November 3, 2013: Migration Day 33 About one mile from take-off, crane #1 dropped back from the group of eight that took off with Brooke for the 55-mile flight to LaSalle County, Illinois. As she dropped back, chase-plane pilot Richard van Heuvelen swooped in and escorted her the rest of the flight. She had the sweet spot off his wing all to herself!

November 7, 2013: Migration Day 37 Flying 1 hour and 15 minutes, all eight cranes followed Richard for the entire 55-mile flight to Livingston County, Illinois.

November 8, 2013: Migration Day 38 Another 59 miles gained! They're in Piatt County, Illinois.

November 13, 2013: Migration Day 43 Onward to Cumberland County, Illinois. Pilot Richard reported: "We reached 3,500 feet above sea level with a ground speed about 31 mph. By the time we touched down we’d been in the air just over two hours. A long time up there to cover 56 air miles."

November 18, 2013: Migration Day 48 Pilot Brooke led them right over the Wayne County, Illinois stopover—and onward to Kentucky! Flying up to 50 mph, today's flight added 108 miles!

December 12, 2013: Migration Day 72 Finally some progress! Winds foiled yesterday's attempted to advance the migration, and they turned back; but today all eight took off with Richard and Joe! Cranes #4 and #3 were the only two who stuck with the aircraft the whole 67 miles to land in Winston County, Alabama! Crane #1 and the others dropped out and had to be found and crated to the new location. Too many days penned in Hardin County!

December 13, 2013: Migration Day 73 Today's attempted flight (the second this week) brought over an hour of wrangling before they gave up and turned back to the Winston County, AL site at 703 total miles gone. The birds didn't want to stay with the trikes in headwinds. "They understand that it is wiser to save your energy for days when the wind helps instead of hinders. And maybe that morning was a lesson the students taught the teachers," wrote pilot Joe Duff.

December 18, 2013: Migration Day 78 The only champion fliers of the day were Cranes #1, #3, #4, and #9, who flew all 101 miles with Richard's plane to Chilton County, AL. That's 804 miles gone!

December 26, 2013: Migration Day 86 All eight cranes completed today's double-leg flight, covering 110 miles to the final stop in Alabama. They're now at 906 miles gone.

December 30, 2013: Migration Day 90 The THIRD double-leg flight in a row brought them 124 miles across Georgia in one day. All of the birds turned back when Richard started to climb, but they were rounded up for another try. As they climbed, ground speeds improved so much that at 3500 feet the pilots decided to skip for Decatur County. Florida is next!

December 31, 2013: Migration Day 91 A perfect flight with all eight birds brought them to Leon County, FLORIDA, with just 28 miles to the finish line. Happy New Year!

Spring 2014: First Unaided Spring Migration North
March 31: All eight young cranes left the pen site at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge this morning with a tailwind to push them along. Data gathered from the four cranes wearing PTT tracking units tells us they made at least one stop in Barbour County, Alabama and spent a couple of days there. By April 3, signals of the four PTT'd birds showed they had covered about 470 miles, reaching Daviess County, Kentucky.

Sad news came on April 14. When #1-13's PTT data remained at the Kentucky location for three days past the time when the other birds had departed. Operation Migration's Heather Ray discovered that a powerline cuts through the property and asked the landowners to search for #1-13. They found a pile of crane feathers beneath the powerline, and the scavenged carcass of #1-13 was a short distance away. It is a tragic loss of a majestic bird to the number one danger of migration: power lines. "We can take some solace in the fact that she did experience freedom," noted Heather sadly. And Brooke, who knew her better than anyone, wrote that from her first days of life to the last, "She remained throughout the smartest and most able member of the group."