Got the Travel Bug?

Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge (IL, IA, WI, MN) and Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge (CA) are taking geocaching to a new level with stuffed birds equipped with travel bugs and a mission. Travel bugs are small metal tags that can be tracked at http://www.geocaching.com.

A mission card attached to each bird says, "I want to go to a National Wildlife Refuge in every state. Take a picture of you and me in front of the Refuge sign, then place me in a geocache near the refuge. After my mission is completed, I want to migrate back to the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge where I was hatched." Twenty-two birds "hatched" on March 28, when they were distributed to both new and veteran geocachers attending a Curing Cabin Fever event at Upper Mississippi Refuge.

One geocacher who was new to the refuge wrote online that "this place is absolutely awesome! I live only 15 miles away and have never been here . . . This place is absolutely awesome!. . . Thank you for bringing me here. I would never have found it without you."

Each geocacher travels to another refuge – ideally in another state – to take the required photo and deposit the bird in the nearest cache. One bird named Picasso has already made it to Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa.

Since it is not legal to leave anything on a refuge, the nearest cache might be a box or canister located with the help of coordinates found on online at http://www.geocaching.com and a GPS unit. The next person who finds that cache will see that it contains a travel bug – and the bird is on its way again. Each time the bird is left in a cache, the coordinates of the cache are recorded online for the next person to find.

Unlike real migratory birds, these birds have no deadline to reach California and they may even go overseas before they get to Sacramento Refuge. "We like it because it's a new sport, it's a learning tool and it gets people outside," says ranger Cindy Samples at Upper Mississippi Refuge. Samples, an avid geocacher herself, helped create this bird-friendly version along with fellow rangers Pam Steinhaus at Upper Mississippi Refuge and Jennifer Stockton at Sacramento Refuge.

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