On December 3, 2001, 7 endangered whooping cranes produced at Patuxent arrived at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River, Florida. The birds, approximately 7 months old, had faithfully followed the Operation Migration's ultra-light aircraft as it led them on a new migratory route from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Central Wisconsin. Starting on October 17th, the trip had taken 48 days, and covered over 1100 miles. The birds had flown south from Wisconsin through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and halfway through Florida. To get to Florida, the birds and their human leaders had to take 25 separate flights. The longest trip lasted 2 hours, 9 minutes; the shortest took only 38 minutes. You might say the whoopers were doing their best to promote travel in the US! The birds and human crew had to spend 23 days land-bound because of bad weather or poor flying conditions. They also endured a serious storm which damaged the pen they were held in overnight. Because of the storm, one of the birds escaped the pen and died when it collided with a power line. Despite this and other setbacks, the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership crew continued on until they'd successfully achieved their goal. This is just the first of many future ultra-light led whooper migrations. The ultimate goal is to establish a new migratory whooper flock that will breed in Necedah and spend the winter in Chassahowitzka. This migratory flock will be completely separate from the original wild migratory flock that travels from northern Canada to southern Texas.

Read daily accounts of the journey at the Operation Migration website.

To find information especially set up for teachers and students, go here.

An excellent map of the entire migratory path can be found here.