By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Whooping cranes back in flight
Placeholder Image
MONROE - The 14 Whooping cranes lifted off from Green County on Monday, after 12 nights in Green County, matching their record for the longest time in one place. They were led by ultralight aircraft pilot Joe Duff.

Duff is one of the founders of Operation: Migration, a program dedicated to increasing the endangered Whooping crane population.

The 14 bird members of the Class of 2008 are being led to their wintering-over territory in Florida. The wintering site for half of the Class of 2008 will be at St. Marks Refuge. The other half of the Class of 2008 will make their last stop at the Halpata-Tastanaki Preserve before their final destination, their wintering site on the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge.

Unfortunately, the weather kept them on the ground again Monday night in Winnebago County, Illinois.

They had gained 34 miles in the hour flight.

"The window giving us winds from the north has slammed closed," wrote Liz Condie on the group's Web site.

The group left Green County on a frosty early morning. Two members of the 12 member crew left for LaSalle County to set up the travel pen at Stopover #6.

While the ultralight climbed to altitude, three birds fell behind but were picked up.

"Maybe they could feel it getting colder and preferred to stay low, or maybe they were just having a tough time staying with the undulating wing," Duff wrote.

For every 1,000 feet in altitude, the temperature normally drops by 3 degrees.

The group leading the cranes is not usually this far north at this time of the year, and while the crew is not used to the cold weather, the cranes seemed to take it all in stride, tucking their feet up into their feathers.

On November 10 last year, the group was in Morgan County, Indiana, 266 miles further along.

People can watch as the migration progresses, at http://www.operationmigration. org/Field_Journal.html.

Video clips of the flight can be found on YouTube.