Photo: Marianne Wellington	Meet the 2009 DAR Whooping Crane Chicks!
	Crane DAR #40-09
	Date Hatched	June 18 , 2009
	Gender	Female
	Pre-Migr. Weight: 4.8 Kg	Egg Source: International Crane Foundation (ICF)
	Permanent Leg Bands	Left Leg G/R Right Leg W/R  PTT
	Read more about the raising and naming of the DAR chicks. *Scroll to bottom for most recent history.*

Personality
DAR 40-09 is a mild mannered and very independent little crane. She is happy to be foraging for herself, eating any purple flowers she can find, and walking the banks of the ponds in the chick yards. She is an avid eater. She grew quickly, which resulted in her legs growing inward to help support her heavy weight. Even though she was exercised and fed to the daily limit, she still gained more than 15% of her body weight a day. She was on a swimming routine to help her lose weight and, we hope, help her legs grow straighter. She has a pink band on the right leg.

By the first of September, 40-09 was flying!

October weather brought sun, wind, rain and snow. The chicks seemed to enjoy testing their wings in the winds. Several days they birds made flights where they were almost out of view flying both to the north and south of their pen site. A couple of times they were out of view for a period of time, and someof the flew over to visit the ultralight chicks in their pen! We couldn't tell which chicks did that because they didn't get banded until Oct. 13. They are building up their flight strength in these final days or weeks before migration.

The nine DAR cranes were released on the evening of October 24 on the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. Signals from the radio transmitters on the birds' leg bands will help biologists from ICF and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as they track movements of the released DAR cranes now and throughout their migration. Stay tuned!

Notes by Marianne Wellington, ICF. Thank you!

Fall 2009: DAR 40-09 was released at ERP on the refuge along with DAR 41-09 and 42-09. They roosted together there the first night, but returned to Site 3 the next day and joined DAR 32-09 and 38-09. They were later joined there by their other flockmates. On November 1 all DAR juveniles (except 36-09 and 42-09) flew in undirected flight over Monroe and Juneau Counties for at least 70 minutes before returning to Site 3. Are they getting restless? Will they soon follow older cranes to learn the migration route, as experts hope they will?

Migration History

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