As of this morning Operation Migration are on Day 21 of the southward migration and they have already covered 94.4 airmiles. Only 1190.6 miles to go! It really is a mission.
They are planning to do another leg today. If they manage it weather wise (which looks really possible) they’ll be ahead of last year by 3 days.Today’s leg will put the team in Illinois, and just 55 miles shy of a milestone of 10,000 miles. That’s 10,000 miles guiding Whooping Cranes South to their new winter terminus. What an amazing achievement.
After a rocky start when the birds seemed reluctant to follow the trikes, the last two flights have seen all 20 young Whooping cranes eagerly following, and the last migration leg had all of them lined up beautifully behind one ultralight.
As most of you have probably seen the broadcast is intermittent on www.crm-api-integ-220516.mystagingwebsite.com. This is because they are not broadcasting when the trike is not in the air. However, the weather has improved greatly and the flights are becoming more frequent so keep your eyes on this channel as when it does pop up it is spectacular.