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Meet
the New 2005 Whooping Crane Chicks! Hatch-year 2005 of the Eastern Flock |
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Crane
# 519 |
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| Date Hatched |
May 30 , 2005 |
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| Gender |
Female |
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| Date Arrived in Wisconsin |
July 13 |
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| Weight
Aug. 31 Permanent Band Colors Left Leg: G/R/G |
5.4 Kg G/W radio USFWS bands |
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Personality and History
Migration
Training: During
their first weeks, 519, 521, 522, and 523 trained well together at
the circle pen. "These guys are hilarious," reported trainer
Mark Nipper at Patuxent WRC. "They run in a tight little bunch
in the circle. They are constantly knocking into each other and a
couple of them really compete to be the closest to the trike. After
a few minutes, they will start getting tired and hot, or just lazy,
and break up a little. There is usually a bird in every group that
will linger behind and forage on its own. For a long time, I thought
that 519 was that bird. Lately, however, each bird has been taking
a turn at this "lagging" behavior." On July 10, Mark
said, "Lately 519 has decided it doesn't like me and is trying
to beat me up all the time. Today we have had a breakthrough with
these chicks out at the pond. We have not been able to leave the
pen without them becoming highly stressed and pacing along the fences.
This leads to banged up faces and raw spots on the body from rubbing.
The birds will stick their heads through the fence if they can. All
of this is pretty common for a while, but these guys seem particularly clingy.
What we trainers usually do is take turns sitting in the pen with them. It is
really pretty fun to hang out with the birds and just let them do their own thing
in the water. They usually take baths and are running around all over the place
trying to catch everything that moves. It is very important, though, that they
be able to spend time away from us. Once we're all moved to the reintroduction
site at Necedah NWR, we try to spend as little time as possible with the birds.
That time becomes less and less as we get closer to migration. We hope this helps
the chicks to be less attached to us and allows them to just be birds."
Chick
#519 shipped to Wisconsin's Necedah NWR on July 13 with other cohort 3 (youngest)
chicks, ready for flight school. All cohort 3 birds surprised the ultralight
pilots by quickly coming out of their pen on their first day of training after
arriving at
Necedah NWR. They all ran after the trike, following closely. Hooray! She's meek
and mild, but by August she doesn't take any garbage from the
older ultralight-led adult whoopers hanging
around
the
training
strip. She loves to chase them away!
As days of flight training passed, some days #519 doesn't even get off the runway.
She follows the trike, flying along the ground until reaching the unmowed grass.
Then she stops.
She
has
been
missing
out
on
some flight training. The
September
9
training
session
was
an
improvement
for
this group of struggling young flyers. All took off with
the trike and followed the pilot for a few minutes. Then
#519
and two other birds dropped out and returned to the grass runway---but when
the
pilot circled back around in hopes the dropouts would take off and follow again,
it worked! All three became airborne and followed for about half a circle before
breaking off and again returning the runway.
On September 15, Cohorts 1 and 2 took their first flight
together. All came out of the pen very excited, all flew well, and only #519
and her buddy #520 turned back early. Mark said, "That's okay. They just
don't have the strength that the rest do."
On Sep. 20, pilots tried to fly all 20 birds together for the first time. Sixteen flew with the trike for about ten minutes, but #519 (along with 511, 520, and 524) were the stragglers and they came back to the runway. She's still a submissive bird.
September 28, the crew had a surprise. Angie said, "#519 has always been a relatively submissive bird but has suddenly become pretty gutsy. She will chase almost any bird that comes near her, but will generally back down to other more dominant birds. In fact, a couple of days ago, we noticed that she was missing a patch of feathers on the left side of her face. We guess that she tried to take on one of the more aggressive birds and paid for it with a few feathers. The feathers are growing back nicely now, and we think she learned a valuable lesson because she has been a little more mellow the past few days."
History
First Migration South: Chick #519 left Wisconsin
for her first migration on October 14th, 2005. Read day-by-day
news about the flock's migration to see what happens.
She performed wonderfully during the migration with no behavior
problems or illness. On
Dec. 13, #519 landed safely with the 19-bird flock
at the holding pen at Halpata Preserve.
But in the few weeks at Halpata, she became very
submissive and the other birds picked on her a lot. She
became terrified of both the other birds AND the costume.
The cranes will be moved in
mid-January after all the older cranes have dispersed
from the release pen.
The pilots and ultralights tried to move the birds on January 9. Not until the third day of trying (January 11) did #519 follow the ultralights over to Chass. HOME! After being at the Chass release site for a week, the birds were let out of the top-netted pen to exercise. (They had not yet been "turned loose" full time.) From the pen, Mark Nipper reported: "#519 was one of the birds that flew. When she landed she came down on the other side of the pen, and as usual, she didn't make it easy for us to get her back into the pen."
At Chass, #519 seemed very scared and nervous.
Spring 2006: Began first spring migration from the "Chass" pen site March 28 with all flock members except 520. This flock of 18 split at roost time on March 28, and fourteen juveniles (501, 502, 503, 505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 512, 514, 519, 523, and 524) stayed together. They probably roosted near the confluence of Turner, Crisp and Wilcox Counties in Georgia. They didn't move the next day. On March 30 they resumed migration and roosted in Hamilton County, TN. The next roosting place was March 31 in Spence County, KY; April 1 in Jefferson County, IN; April 2 and 3 in DuPage County, IL; April 4 in McHenry County, IL. (past Chicago). They are determined to get back to Wisconsin! They flew two days in rain, and in stong headwinds on April 4. On April 5 they resumed migration, stopping in Sauk County, WI—just short of Necedah NWR! Tracker Richard Urbanek was monitoring them the morning of April 6 when they took off. They completed spring migration as they passed the SW corner of Necedah NWR just after noon. (They kept going! They landed, foraged, and roosted that night in nearby Trempealeau County, WI.)
Fall 2006: #519 (along with 510, 511, 512 and 307) began migration from Wisconsin's Necedah NWR on November 9 and made it to northern Illinois that night. Next report was January 2, when they were found in Levy County, FL!
Spring 2007: Began migration on March 28 with #105. They arrived on #105's old territory at Necedah NWR on April 16!
Fall 2007: She left on migration with male #408 on November 27. Crane 519 (along with 408 and 512) completed migration and arrived in Florida on December 4. She was found with #408 and #514 in Hillsborough County, FL on Dec. 19.
Spring 2008: After wintering south of Tampa, #408, #514 and #519 were the first cranes to begin their journey north on February 26. A March 18 report of three whooping cranes in Morrison County, Minnesota, may have been these birds. On March 30, #519 and #408 were observed on Necedah NWR in Wisconsin. It was later determined they arrived on March 27. The pair was reported nesting on the refuge and it appeared on April 23 as if they had just begun to incubate. The nest failed on or before May 5, when it was found empty.
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Sara
Zimorski took these photos of the pair's
nest from a plane on April 23. She checked
the nest on May 5, only to find it empty.
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Last updated: 5/06/08
Back to "Meet the Flock 2005"
Journey North is pleased to feature this educational
adventure made possible by the Whooping
Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP).