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Whooping Cranes Arrive at St. Marks Refuge

Jan. 17, 2009

Photo by refuge volunteer Nick Baldwin

Seven endangered whooping cranes arrived at St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida on Saturday, January 17, after a journey of 1,113 miles from Necedah Refuge in Wisconsin.

The seven whooping cranes were part of a 14 bird flock that followed ultralight aircraft from Wisconsin to Florida. The other seven cranes will be led to further south to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge.

Over 2,000 visitors greeted the cranes for their first-ever trip to St. Marks Refuge. This may be one of the largest gatherings ever for a whooping crane arrival flyover in Florida, which has been an annual event since 2001.

Folks were out on site by 6 am, temperature 20 degrees! Photo by Refuge Volunteer Nick Baldwin

The remaining whooping cranes from this year’s group are due to arrive at Chassahowitzka Refuge in central Florida any day now. There were several weather-related flight delays on this year’s migration.

The ultralight-led migration is a component of an effort to reintroduce a migratory flock of whooping cranes to eastern North America. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership is responsible for the reintroduction and Operation Migration, as members of the partnership, pilot the ultralights.

This is the first time that the young-of-the-year flock of whooping cranes has been divided into two groups and the first time that they have wintered at St. Marks NWR. Go here to read more about the decision to divide the flock and create an additional wintering site at St. Marks.

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