Dells Events
Oct. 24, 2001
photo and story by Judy Gibson
I received an award for this story, along with a couple of follow-ups on the subject, from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. It earned a certificate of merit from the Scripps Howard Foundation Award for Environmental Reporting. My proud moment – quote from the reviewer; “…The prose is both readable and almost as engaging as its subjects.”
The mist rose from the Wisconsin river at dawn on Friday where a little group of people were gathered to watch and photograph the ultra-light human-led whooping crane migration.
“They’ve got birds,” someone said as the two tiny planes were sighted. As the aircraft approached one could make out the young whoopers flying in formation off the wing. The early morning quiet was pierced with a loud “gronk,” the sound that gave the birds their name that hasn’t been heard in the wild over the Wisconsin River for decades. The whoopers were on their way.
The small flock, led by three ultra-light aircraft, had lifted off from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Adams County near dawn two days before in an effort to restore migrating whooping cranes to eastern North America. By Monday they had passed out of Adams and Sauk Counties and were in Green County.
The cranes are being taught a new 1,250-mile migration route to wintering grounds at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. It is hoped the young whoopers will return to Wisconsin on their own next spring. If successful the migrating flock will be one of only two remaining flocks left migrating naturally in the wild. The only flock left, up until now, has been a group that migrates between Kansas and Texas.
The trip has not been without problems and anxiety for all those involved, a cooperation of several organizations, public and private, to help restore the endangered bird to the wild.
George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo, was on hand on Friday to photograph and watch the cranes.
“Our staff helped with raising the cranes and we will be 100 percent in charge in Florida,” said Archibald. He added they will monitor the cranes as they migrate back.
Operation Migration from Canada has expertise in training the cranes to follow the aircraft as if it were a parent. An elaborate system is set up to get the young birds used to the noise and sight of the aircraft without imprinting on human beings meaning that all of the people involved in feeding and leading the chicks wear a baggy white outfit with an adult whooping crane head puppet on the end of one arm. The noise of the aircraft was even played to the chicks while they were still in the eggs.
The operation is expensive and fragile, with biologists and other experts counting on the crane’s natural instincts to migrate and breed. The journey has not been without it’s heart stopping moments. One of the first problems was an errant No. 4 bird who wouldn’t fly along with the others, taking off on his own last Wednesday and after spending a few hours soaring high in the sky, returned to a spot near the refuge, confused and a little frightened.
According to the Operation Migration website posting, No. 4 also appeared to be having a negative influence on No. 6 who would follow him every time he would break off from the group. For this reason the Operation Migration crew decided to crate No. 4 and transport him to the stopovers. As of Monday No. 4 was still following by crate and the others were flying in excellent formation.
Another early obstacle was the necessity of crossing busy I90/94 near the Dells.
On Friday, according to Heather Ray, Administrative Director of Operation Migration, three of the cranes turned back, not wanting to fight the headwinds—the pilots thought it was a good idea and turned back also.
Another attempt on Saturday also failed “. . . the roar of the passing trucks was too much for our inexperienced cranes and they immediately exploded upwards and scattered in every direction. They regrouped quickly and were very willing to follow either aircraft as long as it did not attempt crossing that noisy river of perceived danger.”
The next day the cranes crossed successfully with a quick turn by the pilot at 400 feet.
“Before they realized it, they were across,” said Ray.
Since then the cranes have made steady progress flying 21.4 miles on Sunday and 48 miles on Monday, skipping a planned stop. It is possible to follow the crane progress on the Operation Migration website. There are also video clips on the site of the puppet and ultra-light training plus a clip of a whooper egg hatching. http://www.operationmigration.org
The International Crane Foundation in Baraboo is a founding member of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), the group undertaking this historic effort. Its website is http://www.savingcranes.org The WCEP partners are a diverse group including ICF, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and Operation Migration. The website for the partnership is http://www.bringbackthecranes.org.