A Picture from my last visit to the ICF, BarabooThe planes are safely on the ground and the Class of 2008 are all tucked in the travel pen at Stopover #2 in Juneau County, WI. This leg is the second shortest of all, just 19 miles (by air) from pensite to pensite.
It was our first morning with a temperature below freezing - 19F at 6:15AM - and everyone reached for their long underwear and grabbed sets of hot packs for inside their gloves and mitts. Winds were out of the WNW at 4mph, and while there was shallow fog, it was clear above ground level. The promising conditions sent everyone scurrying out of camp.
On his signal, (7:43am) the ground crew released the birds, and today's lead pilot, Chris, swooped in. With the exception of 830, who had to be chased out of the pen, all the birds took to the air and the crane rodeo began. After several circuits, 10 birds had found Brooke's wing and he turned to head south. The other pilots were left to round up the other four.
Although we're still in Juneau County, albeit South Juneau, we've finally made it to migration Stopover #2. In fact, despite leaving on migration 4 days later this year, we've reached stop #2 two days ahead of when we did in 2007. Admittedly, not much to brag about given the slowness of last year's journey, but I'm going to take the optimistic view that we're setting a trend.
We try to get the EarlyBird e-bulletin sent and this Field Journal posted as quickly as possible every morning. It can be challenging, and it has been more than challenging the last couple of days. Our contract gives us a specific limit of bandwidth and - oops, we'd exceeded our allotment. This means we're taken down to a pace that would make a snail a contender at a Nascar race. All this is to say that we do know you're anxiously waiting for news and thank you for bearing with us.
Technorati tags: Whooping Crane
International Crane Foundation
Operation Migration
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
Journey South
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