See http://www.operationmigration.org/crane-cam.html or http://www.wildearth.tv/web/omi-trk-01 to watch live streaming video on flight mornings.
When these cranes fly on their own next year, the 1200-mile trip back from Florida to Wisconsin will take only a few weeks, now that they’ve learned the route and can fly at up to 5000 feet on the thermals. Up there, they soar for 10 to 12 hours a day, but the ultralights can’t go that high. At around 1000 feet, the birds get support from the vortex off the plane’s wing, but they still have to flap a lot, a more tiring flight, and the plane carries only three hours worth of gas. Therefore, they fly in legs of one to three hours per day, depending on whether there’s a helpful tailwind or crosscurrents they have to fight. So the assisted migration, which began in late October, is just now nearing its completion, almost 3 months later.
It’s a lot of work saving an endangered species.
All along the route, landowners with open fields have been contacted, and those that are willing prepare themselves for the arrival of 20 young whoopers, four ultralight “trikes”, several trailers to house support crew, and trucks to haul the pen that is set up in the field for the duration of the birds’ stay. The hosts often cook for the crew and open up their home for use of bathrooms. No one can tell them exactly when the whole gang will arrive or how long they will remain, since the weather is in charge. And if they hit a good tailwind, the pilots might decide, on a moment’s notice, to skip a stop, and all the hosts’ preparation will be for naught.
The pens must be set up out of sight of the house, since the protocol requires isolating the cranes from all human contact, except for non-speaking crew members in baggy white bird costumes.
But people who agree to host the cranes say they are glad to do it, just for the privilege of watching the flyovers and feeling they’ve been a part of the inspiring work of saving these ungainly yet beautiful birds from extinction.