Don’t know if you’ve been following the saga of the Whooping Crane chicks migration that I link to, but if not, I'll tell you that progress has been slow this year. They began the migration from Wisconsin in the middle of October and still haven’t reached Florida. The team took a break over the holidays, and since then have had many no-fly days due to bad weather.
They had one bad boy in the group that was constantly fighting with his flock mates, and even killed another chick. To minimize the chance of that happening again, the Operation Migration team turned him loose on the refuge in Wisconsin, hoping he would join up with the older birds and follow them. He did. He arrived in Florida in December, having followed the older birds and apparently minding his manners around those that could whip his feathery butt if he got out of line. Makes you wonder if they might do that with more chicks next year. If it works well, it sure beats leading them with trikes.
They had better hurry to their wintering area so they can rest a few weeks before they turn around and head back. The Purple Martin scouts have already arrived in Florida, Louisiana and South Texas on their way back north, so the spring migration has begun. They're a week or two ahead of schedule, so maybe that means we’ll have an early spring this year. I'm ready.
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