Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

August 21, 2001 by Jennifer Rabuck, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

Whooping crane chicks at both site 1 & 2 are showing excellent signs of focussing in on the ultralight aircraft and staying with it, or returning to it if they land earlier than the ultralight. The younger birds are very attentive and follow on two or three loops each morning. The older birds (those at site 2) are able to fly for about 2-2.5 minutes and look fabulous! They still chase the wing, rather than draft off of it - but they follow for large loops. All the birds exit their pens with great commotion: jumping, flapping and overall excitement. Training is progressing well but because these cranes hatched out later than the sandhills from last year's study, the training is slightly "behind schedule". At this time last year, the sandhills (who were older) could fly for 6 minutes and could ride the wing. The trainers are very optimistic and are happy to know that these methods seem to be working well with whooping cranes!Refuge staff viewed the flight training this morning from the Observation Tower (which is always open to the public) at 7:10 am. If anyone is interested, they need to be in place by 7:00 am. Training still depends on the weather, handler availability and equipment status.

Next Update

Back

Home