Date:         Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:10:43 -0700
Reply-To:     "Gretchen E. Nareff" <marshbirder@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Georgia Birders Online <GABO-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Gretchen E. Nareff" <marshbirder@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Liftoff!
Comments: To: Marion Dobbs <catbird500@COMCAST.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <0ddb01c80e0d$f6c6da50$6701a8c0@MIMI>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

If anyone is interested in some personal stories, I
helped raise the 2002 cohort at the Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center in MD, during my first internship
after college.  I believe that cohort was the first to
breed in the wild.  Yes, I got to dance around in the
crane costume...I've got a couple good photos of the
birds, none of me in the costume.  Email me.

Gretchen E. Nareff
Athens, GA


--- Marion Dobbs <catbird500@COMCAST.NET> wrote:

> GABbers,
> For those of you who are interested, the Class of
> '07 Whooping Cranes lifted
> off today from Necedah NWR in Wisconsin to start
> their 1250-mile guided
> migration to the wintering grounds at
> Chassahowitzka NWR on the Gulf Coast
> of Florida. Each year's cohort passes over seven
> states along the way; by
> far the longest leg of their flight is Georgia at
> 330 air miles.
>
> With a few small adventures along the way, all 17
> birds were safely in their
> pen at the first stopover site by late afternoon.
> For those of you who might
> be interested but don't know what I'm talking about,
> I've copied and pasted
> below a short description of this inspiring program
> that I took from
> Operation Migration's website (
> http://www.operationmigration.org/ ). An
> added note, again for folks who haven't followed
> this project for six years
> as I have (!), last year's journey was particularly
> long and grueling for
> all involved, the birds and the pilots and the
> support team, but all 16
> birds were finally led safely to the Florida
> wintering grounds in December
> without a single avian fatality along the way, only
> to find themselves in
> the path of a tornadic storm a few weeks later. All
> but one of that cohort
> were lost, a devastating and heartbreaking blow to
> all concerned. But these
> dedicated people are up and out again this year.
> I've pasted relevant links
> at the bottom of this message.
>
> "Operation Migration was founded in 1994 as a non-
> profit charitable
> organization by Bill Lishman and Joe Duff. That was
> five years after Bill
> became the first human to fly with birds, and one
> year after the two
> artists, turned biologists, used ultralight aircraft
> to lead a small flock
> of Canada geese from Ontario, Canada to Virginia,
> USA. The unassisted return
> migration of these geese the following spring
> garnered world-wide attention
> that led to the making of the hit movie Fly Away
> Home with Columbia
> Pictures.
>
> To perfect techniques, and ensure that once
> released, birds conditioned to
> follow their ultralights would remain wild, several
> migration studies were
> conducted with non-endangered Sandhill cranes in
> subsequent years. The
> results of these studies were evaluated by the
> Canada / United States
> Whooping Crane Recovery Team. Like many birds,
> Whooping cranes learn their
> migration route by following their parents. But this
> knowledge is lost when
> the species is reduced and there are no longer any
> wild birds using the
> flyway. Until Operation Migration was asked by the
> US Fish and Wildlife
> Service to spearhead a reintroduction of the world's
> most endangered cranes,
> there was no method of teaching migration to captive
> reared Whooping cranes
> released into the wild.
>
> In the first five years of the program,
> approximately 60 birds have been
> taught a migration route between Wisconsin and
> Florida. This is 4 times the
> number that existed in the early 1940's. Operation
> Migration Inc works in
> partnership with nine private and government
> agencies known collectively as
> the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership."
>
>
> You can check the route map at
> http://www.operationmigration.org/mile_makers.htm
>
> Check the current progress map at
>
http://www.operationmigration.org/2007migrationmap.html
>
> And here's where to find the journal
> http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html
>
> Ways to help
> http://operationmigration.org/involved.html
>
>
>  There are some great opportunities for classroom or
> school-based projects
> here. If anyone would like to see how some kids are
> participating, follow
> this link:
>
http://operationmigration.org/craniackidsinaction.html
>
>                             **********
> To search GABO-L archives or manage your
> subscription, go to
> http://www.listserv.uga.edu/archives/gabo-l.html
>
> To contact a listowner, send message to
> GABO-L-request@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> To view GABO-L information/guidelines, go to
> http://www.gos.org/gabo.html
>
>



      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Check out the hottest 2008 models today at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html

                            **********
To search GABO-L archives or manage your subscription, go to
http://www.listserv.uga.edu/archives/gabo-l.html

To contact a listowner, send message to
GABO-L-request@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

To view GABO-L information/guidelines, go to
http://www.gos.org/gabo.html