Recent Birding news:
Whooping Cranes killed during storm:
MIAMI -- The fate of a generation of endangered migratory whooping cranes now rides on the fragile wings of a 10-month-old chick known as Number 15.
He is the sole survivor of the Class of 2006, 18 crane hatchlings that followed four costumed ultra-light aircraft from Wisconsin to Florida wintering grounds in December as part of a project to introduce a second migrating population to North America.
Conservationists with Operation Migration had originally feared all of the brood perished in the recent storm that killed 20 people in central Florida. But No. 15, a male chick, managed to break loose from a top-netted pen when deadly tornados struck and killed his 17 flockmates
A bracelet-like radio transmitter attached to the crane's leg sent out signals, said Joan Garland of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis. Just before nightfall on Feb. 4, an aerial search team of ICF volunteers spotted No. 15 safely amid a flock of sand hill and older whooping cranes in the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on the swampy Gulf Coast, about 90 miles north of Tampa.
"What a bright spot he is in this sad time," said Joe Duff, a founder of Operation Migration and one of the ultra-light pilots that guide each year's brood from their summer habitat at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Central Wisconsin. "We've lost a whole generation."
-- Los Angeles Times |