Linked to Wild Bird Wednesday 11
http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com/2012/09/world-bird-wednesday-11-white-eared.html
Operation Migration ...
I spent the last weekend at the Whooping Crane Festival at the home of the wonderful and heroic Operation Migration location. We celebrated the birds and all of the dedicated people involved in the effort to establish a second Whooping Crane flock in order to insure the survival of the species.
To say it was a wonderful experience, enlightening and endearing, hardly touches on all the feelings I left with. These cranes are beautiful and courageous and their keepers are their equals. Between them there is hope of seeing whooping cranes in your sky again for years to come. My congratulations to all who have committed themselves to this extraordinary undertaking.
This year's class is made up of only six cranes (due to low egg production and the start up of a second flock now based at Horicon Marsh). They are raised throughout the summer by the dedicated staff ... a seven day a week, 24 hour commitment. They are trained by handlers who wear white costumes with a Whooping Crane puppet head on one hand so that they avoid any possibility of imprinting. These birds are raised to be a wild flock. Here they are following the ultralight aircraft which will lead them on their migration, possibly starting at the end of this week. To follow the day to day migration, click on http://www.ustream.tv/migratingcranes Each day is dictated by conditions and can be a go or not! The migration takes time as they travel only 50 miles on the days they can go to another preplanned station. This allows them to set up a pen that will protect the birds from predation during the night. The birds spend the winter at a final preplanned location under the care of biologists from the International Crane Foundation (another post on another day), Operation Migrations and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The birds become independent when they choose to make the spring migration on their own back to their home in Wisconsin.
Two ultralights are used which allows greater control of the flight. Some birds will break off from one and go to the other as the mood strikes ... or as the other pilot encourages them.
In this shot you can clearly see the telemetry strapped to the leg of the crane. This is used to track the birds and find them if they were to go off course.
These are fledglings ... they still don't have their full adult coloring, but they are beautiful just as they are. "Cranes are among the most spectacular, elusive and beautiful birds on earth, with a heritage that goes back to prehistoric times ... they are creatures beyond the reach of words" (Aldo Leopold). I hope I have inspired some interest in the plight of these and other populations who face extinction. It is mans doing that they face this crisis ... it is man's responsibility to right his wrong.
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If I have tweaked your interest, I have attached some information and links that will give you details. On the website there is opportunity to donate to Operation Migration ... if you are so inclined.
The following information was taken from the website:
http://operationmigration.org/work_wcranes.html
Operation Migration has played a leading role
in the reintroduction of endangered Whooping cranes into eastern North America
since 2001. In the 1940s the species was reduced to just 15
birds.
Whooping Cranes
The Whooping Crane is the most famous endangered bird in North
America. In part because it is large, distinctive, and photogenic and partly
because, since 1967, Canadians and Americans have cooperated in a successful
recovery program to safeguard it from extinction.
Description
The adult Whooping Crane Grus americana, is the tallest North American bird.
It has a long neck, long dark pointed bill, and long thin black legs. A large
male is about 1.5 m tall. In the air, the wings measure 2 meters or more between
the tips of the long black primaries, or flight feathers, which cannot usually
be seen when the bird is at rest. |
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| The juvenile bird has dark brown eyes upon
hatching, which change to light blue, and finally yellow as the bird matures.
Plumage is reddish-brown. In adults and juveniles the primary wing feathers are
black. |
At close range, the adult Whooping Crane is an imposing bird, with
stark-white feathers; short, black bristle like feathers on the crown and face,
and a small black patch on the back of the head below the crimson
crown.
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Whooping cranes take their name from their distinctive
whooping call. During the early spring courtship, a pair
of birds may perform a duet, or unison call. A nesting whooper frequently bugles
loud and clear during the early morning hours. This sound carries over several
kilometers, and it is used by the adults to advertise their breeding territory
to other Whooping Cranes. Adult birds at the nest use a purring sound referred
to as a
contact call to communicate with newly
hatched chicks.
When the weather is good and the winds favourable, a
migrating Whooping Crane flies like a glider, on fixed wings. The bird spirals
upwards (aided by thermal activity), glides down, dropping as low as 70 m above
ground, and then begins spiraling upwards again. This spiraling and gliding,
carried out when the cranes encounter suitable thermal updrafts, is
energy-efficient and allows the cranes to fly nonstop for great distances.
In flight, Whooping cranes can be distinguished from other large
white birds by the long neck extended forward and legs that trail equally
straight behind. Whooping cranes communicate vocally with each other even while
flying, using
flight calls. Birds often confused
with the Whooping Crane are American White Pelican, Tundra Swan, and Lesser Snow
Goose. All three species are mostly or entirely white but, in flight, none has
long legs trailing behind.
Migration
Each fall, the only naturally occurring Whooping cranes migrate
south from Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park to their traditional wintering
grounds in Texas at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The birds spend the
winter feeding and resting. Wintering Whooping cranes prefer blue crabs and
several types of clams, but they also eat crayfish, small fish, snakes, insects,
acorns, and small wild fruit.
In early spring, while still on the
wintering grounds, pairs of cranes whoop and
dance
as part of courtship. Dancing intensifies until the migrants depart, usually in
mid-March. The breeding pairs begin arriving in northern Wood Buffalo National
Park during the third week in April, where each pair establishes a
territory.
Breeding & Nesting
Whoopers usually build a nest in marshes or shallow ponds, in
about 25 cm of water (the flightless chicks can swim to escape predators) and
most often in relatively dense stands of bulrush.
A pair usually has two eggs. Both eggs generally hatch, but if
both eggs are left in the nest, usually only one chick survives. The reason for
this may be related to a food shortage, particularly when wet areas begin to dry
out and terrestrial predators, such as the gray wolf, are able to penetrate the
cranes' nesting marshes.
The incubation period is 29– 30 days, and both
parents share the task of incubating the eggs in the nest. Few eggs are lost to
predators thanks, in part, to the vigil of the adult birds. The reddish orange
young hatch during the last week in May or the first week in June. From then on,
the parents are kept busy feeding their chicks. During the summer, the cranes
rarely fly. Some birds may be incapable of flight during short periods due to
the molt of major wing feathers.
Family groups frequent the shallows of small ponds and marshes,
where the adults perhaps find larval forms of insects such as dragonflies,
damselflies, and mayflies, and also snails, small clams, water beetles, leeches,
frogs, and small fish to feed their young. When the parent birds kill larger
prey, such as snakes, mice, small birds, ducklings, and even birds up to the
size of half-grown bitterns, they share the spoils of these hunts with their
young.
By the end of September or early October the young birds are ready
to try their wings on the 4000 km migration to the Texas winter range. On the
way south, the birds spend one to five weeks feeding in their staging (stopover)
areas in Saskatchewan. In these areas, undisturbed whoopers may spend the entire
one- to five-week staging period on the same quarter or half-section of land.
Here the birds fatten up on waste barley and wheat in stubble fields, and roost
during the night in nearby wetlands.
Recovery Efforts
It is believed that approximately 1,400 whooping cranes existed in
1860. Their population declined because of hunting and habitat loss until 1941
when the last migrating flock dwindled to an all-time low of 15 birds. The wild
flock has slowly increased to over 180 in late 1999. This flock winters in and
around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf coast of Texas. In spring,
they migrate north, nesting in Wood Buffalo National Park, which straddles the
border of Alberta and Northwest Territories in Canada. This flock of whooping
cranes is the only naturally occurring wild population in the world. Scientists
have long recognized the risk of having all of the wild whooping cranes using
one wintering and breeding location. With all the wild birds concentrated in one
small area, the population could be wiped out by disease, bad weather, or human
impacts. Whooping crane survival depends on additional, separated
populations.
International Whooping Crane Recovery Team
The Whooping Crane Recovery Team (WCRT) is the governing body charged with
responsibility of the species. Consisting of ten members: five Americans and
five Canadians the team of ornithologists and biologists provide policy
recommendations to the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and
Canadian
Wildlife Service. Primarily, the team plans actions to protect the
Aransas/Wood Buffalo natural flock and to establish two additional flocks in
efforts to safeguard the whooping crane from possible extinction.
The team's efforts to establish a non-migratory Whooping crane flock began in
Florida in 1993, using cranes hatched in captivity. In September, 1999, after
searching for the best possible location to establish a second
migratory
flock, the team recommended that the flock be taught a migration route with
central Wisconsin as the northern terminus and the west coast of Florida as the
new wintering location. The WCRT sanctioned Operation Migration's ultralight-led
migration technique as the main reintroduction method.
Government Agencies and Non-Profit
Organizations joining forces to safeguard the rarest crane in the
world.
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To assist in carrying out this monumental reintroduction effort,
several government and non-profit organizations have joined forces with
Operation Migration and now comprise the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
(WCEP).Visit the WCEP
website |
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The Founding Members of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership Include:
International Crane Foundation 
Since it's founding in 1973, the
International Crane Foundation (ICF), a
non-profit organization, focuses attention on the conservation of the world's 15
species of cranes. Through its programs in education, research, field ecology,
captive propagation, and reintroduction, ICF helps to ensure the survival of
cranes and their habitats throughout the world.
ICF will have an active role in the reintroduction of an eastern migratory
population of Whooping cranes. The new flock will be released in Wisconsin and
taught to migrate to Florida. ICF will educate the public about the
reintroduction effort through outreach programs and on-site tours.
The ICF Crane Conservation Department will provide expertise in
rearing chicks for release, and monitor the health of the new flock. The ICF
Development Team will participate in securing funding for this project.
Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin
The Natural Resources
Foundation of Wisconsin is a non-profit organization that promotes the
knowledge, enjoyment, and stewardship of Wisconsin’s natural resources by
providing educational programs and financially empowering grassroots as well as
professional environmental programs. We help a variety of DNR programs in need
of private sector support, but actively fundraise for selected major projects,
like the whooping crane recovery effort. We are committed to raise start-up
funds for the project’s first three years to help construct facilities and
purchase equipment critical to the project’s success.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service 
The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and
Canadian
Wildlife Service are given the responsibility by law to recover endangered
species. The service will facilitate a diverse partnership of federal, state,
and private organizations whose common goal is to establish a second migratory
flock of Whooping cranes in the eastern states.
As part of the overall team, the service is also responsible for
flyway states coordination, budget development, and project outreach and
communications.
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
The
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center of the
U. S. Geological Survey provides research support to client bureaus in the Dept.
of Interior, including the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U. S. Park Service,
the Bureau of Land Management, and other clients in the United States. Patuxent
is located in Laurel, MD on 12,800 acres of land managed for a diversity of
mid-Atlantic habitats.
Patuxent raises about two-thirds of all Whooping cranes for
release to the wild, and will supply a substantial number of cranes for the
Wisconsin-to-Florida release project.
Patuxent will also provide research and logistical support for
the Wisconsin release. This support will include rearing Sandhill and Whooping
crane chicks conditioned to follow ultralight aircraft. Patuxent will ship these
chicks to the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin for continued
ultralight training.
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) is a Federal
diagnostic and research laboratory under the Department of Interior. The
Center's focus is on prevention, detection and management of wildlife disease
for the benefit of free-living wildlife. Efforts are concentrated on animals
under Federal stewardship such as migratory birds and mammals, endangered
species and animals on Federal lands. NWHC was established in 1975 and is based
in Madison, Wisconsin. Center staff provide diagnostic and research services
nationwide and internationally. The Center has provided veterinary consultation,
diagnostic services, collaboration on health risk assessments and disease
research in support of the crane project.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Wisconsin was the first State to officially partner with the
Whooping Crane Recovery Team (WCRT) and the US Fish & Wildlife Service in
the effort to establish an eastern-migrating population of Whooping cranes. The
WCRT chose Wisconsin as the summer nesting site.
The state maintains and manages a portion of the wetland complex
that will support the Whooping crane flock, and has supplied much of the
environmental data used to assess the suitability of the Wisconsin site where
the cranes will be released. The DNR is also funding the
project coordinator's position and is
providing many staff and department resources to the project.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
The
National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation is a private, non-profit organization established by Congress in
1984 to benefit the conservation of fish, wildlife, and plants, and the habitat
on which they depend. Its goals are conservation education, habitat protection
and restoration, and natural resource management. The Foundation meets these
goals by creating partnerships between the public and private sectors, and
strategically investing in conservation projects.
The Foundation awards challenge grants in which awarded seed
funds must be matched with additional funding. The Foundation's challenge grants
not only increase dollars directed to conservation, but also increase
organizations dedicated to conservation. The Foundation facilitates cooperation
and buy-in from diverse stakeholders by creating partnerships among federal,
state, and local governments; corporations; private foundations; individuals;
and non-profit organizations.
The Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the State agency
charged with managing Wisconsin's environment; from fish and wildlife to air,
water, land, and outdoor recreation. 
