Personality and Training: Crane chick #7-14 hatched May 18. She had splayed legs and a toe problem, but it was decided that since cranes in the wild don’t hitchhike with their toes, she was pronounced recovered after having the toes taped for a a while. She went out to see the trike May 25 and started her official ground school training soon after. She was a good follower!

These images help tell her story:

When #7 takes a grape from the crane puppet, she still takes the grape tentatively and always tries to wash it off first!

Team member Geoff says #7 and #8 are cut from the same cloth. Both are fairly solitary and independent. They both prefer to be left alone. "Crane #7 will flap her wings at me while #8 just keeps her distance from me. Neither bird likes being locked in the dry pen and will resist every step of the way if anyone tries to get them out of the wet pen."

Heather says #7 has very pretty eyes compared to the others!

October 10, 2014: Migration Day 1! The six girls took off for their first migration stop. Crane #7 flew the distance to Stopover #1: four miles.

October 11, 2014: Day 2 Cranes #2, 7, 9 and 10 took off but dismayed the team when they returned to their old White River Marsh training pen site instead of following the plane to Stopover #2. This has never happened in the team's past 13 seasons of leading cranes on migration! All were put in crates and driven to stop #2 in Marquette County, Wisconsin: 14 miles.

October 26, 2014: Day 17 Finally a fly day! All seven took off, but cranes #3 and #8 were the only ones to successfully fly the 28 miles to Columbia Co., Wisconsin in 42 minutes of flying. The other five that dropped out were crated and driven to Stopover #3. Maybe #7 is still a bit set back from the time she was wearing the backpack transmitter.

November 3, 2014: Day 26 Crane #7-14 was in the perfect lineup on both of today's takeoffs with Brooke and his aircraft. The birds, however, didn't want to climb and ended up dropping out, one by one. All were captured and crated back to their enclosure in Columbia County, Wisconsin.

December 2, 2014: Day 54 Forty-six miles to Lowndes County, Alabama—for all seven birds! They had to work hard in headwinds and heat. As usual, #7 was in lead. She dominates the sweet spot right behind the wingtip. Here she can glide along, hardly ever flapping her wings, while all the birds behind her must work ever harder. She annoys Joe by moving ahead of the wing and destroying the lift on one side, making Joe's job harder. Then she dropped below the wing and flew beside Joe. The other birds follow her like good "wing men." So, while she plays with the energy she saved, the other birds must struggle to keep up. Their beaks were open and they panted all the way. Today she pulled another prank: pulling on the string that holds in the wingtip batten. When she swooped in to pull the string with her beak, Joe dodged while the other four tried to follow her or him. Hard work for all!

December 9, 2014: Day 61 All seven cranes flew again this morning, covering 117 miles and crossing Georgia! Here they are in Decatur County, GA. with only two flights to go!

December 10, 2014: Day 62 Another good day! All seven cranes flew 33 miles to Leon County, FLORIDA in 47 minutes. They flew just shy of 2,000 feet altitude at a ground speed of 51 mph, thanks to a nice tailwind. Only 28 miles to go!

December 23, 2014: Freedom! The cranes were released to freedom on the morning of Dec. 23. This is the first year they won't have a final health check.

January 5. 2015: Each bird was quickly caught one more time to get permanent legbands and tracking transmitters.

Spring 2015: First Unaided Spring Migration North
March 11: Juvenile female #7-14 failed to return to the winter pen with the other six in the Class of 2014 cohort the night of March 11. She had taken off with adult cranes #4-12 and #4-13, becoming the first in her cohort to start the journey north! (She is the crane that kept getting in front of Joe’s aircraft wing on the southward migration. As Operation Migration's Heather notes, "She always was in a hurry!")

Crane #7-14 was the only crane in the Class of 2015 to make the entire northward migration from Florida. She returned with #4-13 and #9-13. High quality PTT hits placed her in northwest Alabama the morning of March 17. Her PTT signals on March 23 placed her firmly in northern Illinois. By March 25, her signals were in Carroll County, IL. The three cranes took their time on the migration but arrived in Green County, Wisconsin, by roost on March 26th and Marquette County, Wisconsin, by roost on March 28th.

She was seen, still with male #4-13, in mid May on Horicon NWR (photo, right). They had been visiting various wetlands in central Wisconsin since their late March return. She was still with the older pair as August began.

Fall 2016: She was last seen September 30 after her mate re-paired with another female. The WCEP team suspects #7-14 may be dead, but no carcass has been found in the area so it cannot be confirmed. At this date, she is still included in the EMP population totals.