| Start | Next |
| On arrival day, costumed handlers (A) wait for the cranes (B) to land. (The Class of 2016 was the exception. The birds walked the final half mile into the pen after being trucked the last 23 miles.) After arrival, the birds are led to a small pen (C) with a top net. The net is removed several days later, after the cranes are banded and settled. The birds now come and go from the whole big enclosure. For the next few months they learn to be wild and free in St. Marks' good winter habitat.
Photo Heather Ray, Operation Migration |
