Whoopers Happening_56 All Flown Home!
The second half of the Class of 2009 have now been safely lead to their winter home at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge near Crystal River, FL. They completed the last, shorter leg of this trip this morning, and now the endless details of packing, storing trikes, materials and getting things together to head back north, where in June this will all begin again at Necedah NWR in Wisconsin!
They say practice makes perfect, and since Joe declares that they are the experts on leading bird migration (with little competition, save possibly one 'retired' guy named Kent Clegg out west!) they have this all down to both a science and procedure.
Now, it's up to those who make such decisions to do what they can to encourage and support propagation and successful fledging of chicks this year at Necedah. That means, if the other members of the WCEP team could become as good at what they do as Operation Migration has in leading the birds south each year, we should have many chicks out there and this flock will become self-sustaining! There has to be an answer, and with so much experience and expertise about these cranes and birding on the WCEP team, there must be a solution... but it really needs to happen this year!
So, to the other organizations who comprise the WCEP team... let's get it together and make 2010 THE year that perhaps 5 or 6 new chicks fledge and make it to migration this fall! This is the goal and has been all along... self-sustainability. They know what the issues are, and surely there are solutions that they can turn to. Black flies, climate, food supply... whatever the problems may have been, let's make this year the year it all turns around and proves this huge effort has been truly worthwhile!
Download | Duration: 00:10:31
Photos: Richard van Heuvelen leads the 2nd half of the Class of 2009 Whooping crane chicks over Dunnelon Airport above a waiting crowd January 19th 2010. The birds are now safely in their winter pen site and will return to Wisconsin on their own this spring.
Posted by Mark Chenoweth at 1/20/2010 10:24 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Operation MIgration Whoopers ultralight-led birds WCEP endangered birds Whooping cranes birds bird migration endangered species
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Operation MIgration Whoopers ultralight-led birds WCEP endangered birds Whooping cranes birds bird migration endangered species
Right on, Mark!!!
I spoke to an audience of 100 attendees at an Audubon meeting in Florida last evening and delivered essentially the same message that you have enscribed here ... namely that the objective of Whooping Crane conservation is not to fly birds from Wisconsin to Florida behind ultralights, but rather to build self-perpetuating, self-sustaining Grus Americana populations to complement the Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock.
Your challenge to the WCEP team to make THIS year THE year in which the TRUE purpose of this undertaking (sustainability), rather than the theatrical and aeronautical that have dominated the migratory reintroduction venue for the past nine years, could not have been more adroitly and forcefully stated. I applaud your position and your intestinal fortitude in challenging the Whooping Crane establishment.
I had written just a few days ago that your voice of wisdom will be sorely missed in the future as you fade out of the Whooping Crane reporting business. Your current podcast underscores most emphatically the quality of your work to which I had previously alluded.
Once more, all the best.
Catch the thermals of life, Mark.
John
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