Cranes land in county this week

By Staff
Jonathan Willis
A flock of migrating whooping cranes followed the ultra-light aircraft leading them over the Russellville Municipal Airport Thursday.
The birds will be housed in a secluded and protected area near the airport until the crew leading them is able to fly south. The Operation Migration crew hopes to fly to Jasper either today or Sunday, depending on the weather.
Whooping cranes are one of the rarest birds in North America.
The whooping cranes that are grounded in Russellville, which were raised in captivity, are being led from Wisconsin to Florida by volunteers flying ultra lights to teach the birds how to migrate. After being led along the route once, the birds will able to migrate on their own.
The assisted migration is part of an effort to restore the whooping crane population.
The only naturally occurring population of whooping cranes lives in Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park and migrates south to their wintering grounds in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. This colony consists of approximately 250 birds.
Scientists have long feared the dangers of having only one population of birds that winter in the same place. They migrate 2,500 miles twice a year plus their wintering grounds are far from ideal with risks of drought, human encroachment, and worsening environmental changes threatening this group. A record 23 birds did not live through last winter, which is 8.5% of this flock.
This is where Operation Migration has stepped in to try and establish a secondary colony of these amazing birds through reintroduction through captive chicks.
According to the Operation Migration website handlers play a recording of an aircraft engine to the eggs when turning them during incubation. Training with the aircraft continues after hatching and eventually these new chicks are ready to migrate.
Whooping cranes learn to migrate from their parents, so the captive chicks need to be shown the migration route by following an ultra light aircraft. The migration starts in central Wisconsin at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and heads south through central Illinois then through western Tennessee and Kentucky then through Alabama clipping southwest Georgia and ending in either St. Marcks Wildlife Refuge near Tallahassee, Fla., or Chassahowitzka National Wildlife near Homassa, Fla.
This program began in 2001 and each year the population is strengthened by a new group of raised and introduced chicks.
The 2009 class of cranes began with 20 birds. Once the group has been shown the way once then their instincts take over and in the spring they make the return trip north on their own.
The hope is that this colony will soon be self-supportive and start hatching chicks in the wild.