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Whooping Crane Training at

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge - Oct. 5, 2001

by Jennifer Rabuck

On Friday morning the sun rose over a calm pool filled with staging waterfowl. The cranes flew for over 16 minutes in nearly perfect formation behind the plane. Viewing from the Observation Tower is wonderful as the whooping cranes are now accompanied by fall foliage, noisy sandhills and rafts of geese and ducks. One of the planes is in for pre-migration repairs so they have been training using only one ultralight. Two of the whooping cranes are not quite as strong of fliers as the lead birds, and the second plane often provides them a fresh wing for training flights. Both planes are expected to be up soon and back in the sky to fine-tune the flock for the migration takeoff, tentatively set for October 15.

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Last updated: April 15, 2009