Winter & Spring

Getting Started

• Key Whooping Crane Activities: Fall
• How Does a Whooping Crane Sound?
• How Big is a Whooping Crane?
• Crane ID: Will You Know a Whooper?

Tracking Whooping Crane Migration

• Purchase a Tracking Map or Make Your Own

Conservation: Bringing Back an Endangered Species

• The Goal: A New Flock of 125 Cranes by 2020
• The Progress to Date: Population Graph of the Eastern Flock
• Reproduction: Nesting Summary for the New Eastern Flock
• The Challenges of Survival: Learning from Crane Life Histories
• The World's Whooping Cranes: Population Totals
• Latest Reintroduction Effort: A New Flock for Louisiana
• About Operation Migration: Fly Away Home — and Beyond

Fall Lessons

The Whooping Cranes of the New Eastern Flock

• Meet the New Eastern Flock: Individual Biographies
• How Many Cranes in the New Eastern Flock? (Summary of Statistics)
• Meet the Flock: Getting-to-Know-You Activities

Early Life and Training the Chicks for Ultralight-led Migration

• New! Flight School Changes Locations
  
• Ground School Training
• Keeping Crane Chicks Healthy
• Who's in Charge?
• Meet Robo-Crane!
• Swamp Monster Helps With Training
• An Inside Story: Inside the Egg
• Where's My Mommy? Imprinting
• Me First: Whooping Crane Pecking Order
• Pecking Order Simulation Game
• The Hurdle of Health Checks
• Report Cards for Cranes in Training
• What is Roosting?
• Can Chicks Migrate Without Following Ultralight Airplanes?
• Safety: What Predators Go For Cranes?
• Leg Bands: Codes and Colors
• Whooping Crane Kids: Learning Life's Lessons
• How Birds Fly

The Operation Migration Team and the Migration:

• See a Migration Take Off! (video clip, viewing guide)
• An Ultralight Pilot's Survival Kit
• Why Can't the Cranes Climb as Fast as the Ultralights?
• How Can the Pilots Tell if the Birds are Tired?
• Why is Cool Air Best for Migration?
• Flight Days: Everyone Has a Job
• What Makes a Good Stopover Site?
• Flight Formation: the V's Have It
• GPS: Where on Earth?
• Why Not Truck the Birds on No-fly Days?
• Ultralight Pilot's Checklist: Weather or Not?
• GPS: A Snapshot in Time
• Where on Earth? A Look at GPS
• Brrr! It's Cold Up There!
• Why Such Short Daily Flights?
• Setting Up the Travel Pen (slideshow)
• Radio Telemetry: Tracking the Cranes
• In the Tracking Van With Bev
• Tracking and Retrieving: Help from Two-Way Radios and Marsh Music
• Comparing Ultralight-Led Migrations 2001-2015
• Who Goes Where? Dividing the Flock for Winter Homes
• Halpata: Layover Site
• St Marks NWR: A Second Winter Home (slideshow)
• Protocol for Operation Migration
• WCEP Duties: Who Does What?

The Ultralight Aircraft

• In the Cockpit: Come In, Alpha-Kilo-Quebec
• Who's Flying These Ultralights? (Photo Quiz)
• How to Identify the Ultralight (Photo Display)
• Ultralights and Conventional Planes: What's the Difference?
• How Does the Pilot Steer the Ultralight?
• Frosty Wings: A Problem (slideshow)
• How Does the Trike Help the Cranes in Flight?

Teacher-Recommended Books

• Whooping Crane Trade Books Too Good to Miss
  

Special Stories: (also see JN Kids)

• Taylor Flies With the Cranes
• Operation Migration Visits Second Grade

More! Conservation, Artistic Expression, General Crane Biology, Reintroduction/Crane History