Have Not Followed Ultralight Surrogate Parent In First Migration To Florida

Fish and Wildlife officials say that the nine juvenile whooping cranes whose first migration that ran into some red tape have not continued their migration, perhaps in part because of the mild winter weather in the south.

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The flight was grounded when it was revealed that the pilots flying the ultralight aircraft, which serve as surrogate parents leading them on their first migration, were being compensated for their time by the non-profit. FAA rules do not allow ultralight pilots to be paid for their flying. The cranes stopped at the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge, and seem to be content to be there.

The grounding lasted about a month as the FAA decided whether to grant a waiver to Operation Migration on the compensation issue.

When the dust had settled, so had nine of the 10 birds. One joined a group of sandhill cranes and continued on to Florida on its own. The manager of Wheeler Wildlife Refuge, Dwight Cooley, said he hopes that Wheeler is a regular destination for the cranes. "We have great habitat, as evidenced by the number of cranes wintering on the refuge," he told the Gadsdey Times. He said there are about 11,000 sandhill cranes, as well as seven of the endangered whooping cranes that are wintering on the refuge.

FMI: http://wheeler.fws.gov, http://operationmigration.org