Operation Migration

Richard Nix, a new member of the Florida Springs Unit, took these pictures as the latest group of young Whooping cranes passed over the Dunnellon airport. The cranes were headed to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, on the Citrus-Hernando county border.  They arrived there on the 89th day of this year’s 1,285-mile migration.

When the cranes are about 5 or 6 months old, they will follow the tiny ultralight planes on their first migration — a long, risky journey to the flock’s wintering grounds in Florida.

Each year, new crane chicks are raised in captivity, trained to migrate with the ultralights, and added to the growing eastern flock. This year’s new flock members are called the "Hatch Year 2009" birds, or the Class of 2009 — and it began as the largest in the reintroduction’s 9-year history.   A total of 20 chicks made the journey from Wisconsin to Florida. 

In spring all the young cranes will return to Wisconsin without any help. They’ll do this for the rest of their lives, joining other members of the growing new Eastern flock!

The Eastern migratory flock began in 2001 from 11 chicks bred in captivity. With no wild parents to teach the way,  the young are taught the route by following ultralight aircraft flown by volunteers on their first journey south. Also in autumn, a few additional costumed-raised chicks are also released to follow older cranes south. 

The goal of this effort is 25 breeding pairs from 125 birds in the Eastern Migratory Flyway by 2020, This is a slow process, and the oldest birds have not been very successful at nesting and raising their own chicks to grow the flock.