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Roost
Check. See today's questions!
Video
Heather Ray, Operation Migration
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This
unbelievable day started as down-day #5 in LaSalle
County, Illinios when the pilots ruled "no go" with fog
at the departure site and high humidity (making breathing
difficult
for
the birds
when
they
are
working
hard). The
landowner
at the next location reported fog too.
The pilots also feared having to land out
somewhere
on the first day of gun season for deer hunting. These were all
good reasons to not try a flight. Later
they let the birds out for exercise and got the surprise of their
lives! Only
four birds (903, 906, 907 and 924) came back when called. The other
16 took off and never turned back! The birds then had a half-hour
headstart, but Richard took off, hoping to locate the 16 cranes
flying in thermally air. He was following them in his
trike
with
the tracking antenna, but had trouble catching up with them. Meanwhile,
racing along the ground were two tracking
vehicles. Flying with the top cover pilot in a faster Cessna was
Walt with more tracking
equipment. By the time the faster plane caught up with Richard and
the birds they were almost 60 miles south. Walt
spotted Richard at the same time he caught sight of the birds,
flying in
a perfect V-formation.
Walt wrote in the Field
Journal:
"Richard
had actually passed the birds without knowing it and they were
now following him at a distance. From
their vantage
point on the road below Brooke and Sharon spotted the birds at
about
the same time. "Between us, we led Richard to the birds and he
was able to gather them up and get them on his wing. it took over
an hour, but he led them another
20 miles west—into the wind—to our next stop in Livingston
County. We circled over him and Brooke and Sharon followed below
so the birds had a ground and air escort all the way. Bev, Chris
and
Geoff left camp and got to the new site about 20 minutes ahead
of Richard. In full costume, they
started setting up the pen. Bev was in the
field and called
them down at 3:15 pm. Richard had about a gallon
and a half
of fuel left in his tank. We have had a lot of exciting
days over the past nine years of migrations but this is the first
time that
the birds decided to
migrate without
the ultralights."
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CraneCam is
LIVE each day from 6:30 to 10:00 a.m. and again from 3:30 to 4:30
in the afternoon, just before sunset. The TrikeCam is
LIVE during flights (but not today's unexpected flight).
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In
the Classroom
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(a) Click
on the video clip above. You are watching
the young cranes at their evening roost check. What
words describe the cranes' movements?
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(b-for-bonus) Edit
your list to include the most descriptive
words you know for describing the sights
and sounds. A
thesaurus can help you.
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Migration
History: If
Operation Migration arrives
in Florida with all 20 birds in the Class
of 2009, this will be the largest ultralight-led
migration in the
9-year
project. The Class of 2005
also departed with 20 young birds.
What
happened to make it only 19 birds
at the
Florida
arrival?
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