Personality and Training: Crane chick #2-13 hatched from an egg rescued from the abandoned nest of parents #9-03 and #3-04, who learned the migration route from the ultralight plane just as this little chick will do. Her sibling is Chick #5-13, who hatched from the same pair's other rescued egg!

Little chick #2 started out as the most insecure, submissive, and easily-spooked bird who never met a shadow it didn’t fear, said Joe Duff. But that changed! She got her confidence as Brooke and the other handlers worked with her. This group of chicks are all quite mellow, which made it easier.

Growing Fast
Image: Operation Migration

By June 3, chicks 2-13 through 5-13 were all getting walked together in Maryland where they hatched. The team thinks these chicks seem like the best of buddies, which is a very good thing for cranes that spend so much time together.

On July 9, the chicks were transported to Wisconsin for "Flight School." Crane #2 appeared to be the first brave bird to explore the wet pen when the chicks were introduced to it on July 12. The others quickly followed her lead. The water held a LOT of frogs for them to hunt and eat, which #2 discovered first.

By mid July, #2 and #1-13 were already able to skip a few steps as they follow the trike. After just a week or two, chicks #2 snd #1 were catching ground effect (air currents) off the wing. The air currents under their wings helped them lift a few feet off the ground in early flight.

Wings!
Image: Doug Pellern

Chick #1 was first in the group to fly a good portion of the runway, but very soon after chick #2-13 was following after her—airborne! 

By August 7, all eight Whooping cranes in this year’s cohort were able to fly. While they hadn't completed a circuit down and back over the training field yet, they were all flying and attempting to follow the aircraft.

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! Crane #2, who had stopped trying and kept turning back in mid September, is back in the game!!

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 #2 was among the six others that dropped out and had to be captured, crated and driven to stopover #4 on today's turbulent flight.They are now all safely at the Green County, Wisconsin stopover site.

The birds fell in and out of formation, flew well one minute and poorly the next. Up and down, round and round in the turbulence they went. Dropouts here, pickups there, lots of effort and challenges — but, at the end of the day, all eight birds as well as the crew were safely at the next stop

October 25, 2013: Migration Day 24 Crossing into Illinois! All eight cranes trailed off pilot Richard's wing the whole way! Winds kept them grounded here for the next nine days.

November 3, 2013: Migration Day 33 The group of eight took off with Brooke for the 55-mile flight to LaSalle County. Crane #2 and six others stayed with Brooke's aircraft for the entire 2-hour flight.

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 #2 and the others dropped out and had to be found and crated to the new location. Too many days penned in Hardin County!

December 18, 2013: Migration Day 78 After several attempts to get four reluctant birds to fly, the team had to crate and drive #2, #5, #7 and #8 the 101 miles flown by the other four cranes. The migration reached Chilton County, AL and 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. One later dropped down and Brooke took that one. As they climbed, ground speeds improved so much that at 3500 feet the pilots decided to skip for Decatur County. The rest of Richard's flight was spent fighting for lead with crane #2! "She would pull ahead looking about smugly enjoying the view from in front of the trike but to her dismay the trike would soon reassert itself in the lead. This went on, back and forth with other birds taking turns taking lead for the last 60 miles." 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. Storms and headwinds kept them grounded there for a week. Sadly, this is where the remains of young female crane #1-13 were found. Since only six cranes were ever seen teogether at this stop, it is believed it was soon after arriving that something happened to number 1-13, and that the other missing crane, # 3-13, likely split off from the group before this stop.

The 6 birds (cranes #2-13, 4-13, 5-13, 7-13, 8-13 and 9-13) continued migration when the weather finally allowed them to leave. The group apparently spent two days in McHenry County, Illinois. On April 12 they made a short hop into Wisconsin’s Walworth County, where a spring snow storm and winds kept them grounded for another 5 days. April 18 PTT data placed #2-13 approximately 10 miles north of Berlin, WI — likely to roost— and on April 19, the six young cranes (#2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9) arrived right back on their training strip at White River Marsh, Wisconsin, migration complete!

The roost locations used by the cranes wearing PTT devices shows that, while they didn’t follow the exact migration route used by the aircraft that led them south last fall, they surely were close for the entire way. Hooray!

The group of six stayed together in Green Lake County, WI for several days. Then #7-13 and #8-13 broke off on their own, spending time in Dodge County, WI., leaving #2, #4, #5 and #9 at White River Marsh in Green Lake County. This little group wandered in nearby counties during the summer, in typical behavior for yearling subadults and were in Fond du Lac County in July.

Image: Doug Pellerin

Fall 2014: Cranes #2-13, 4-13, 5-13, 7-13 and 8-13 began migration from Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin on 13 November. Satellite readings indicted roost locations in Iroquois County, Indiana, on 13 November; Wabash County, Illinois, on 14 November; northern Alabama on 17 November and Decatur County, Georgia, on 18 November where they remained until arriving at the St. Marks NWR in Wakulla County, Florida on November 21 for the winter.

It was a sad day in mid January when Brooke found the remains of #2 and #7, likely killed by a predator(s). Brooke had tracked the transmitters of 2-13 and 7-13 into a wetland a few miles north of St Marks into mixed habitat—not a great place for cranes due to the presence of bobcats. The remains of both cranes had been scavenged and likely dragged into the woods.