Comments | resa53: Operation Migration

resa53

Operation Migration

Aug 22, 2009 08:04

I don't post much but I did want to share something with you.
My daughter is working with an awesome organization, Operation Migration, for the second year. OM is a non profit working to reintroduce Whooping Cranes back into the wild. (Short history) Whooping Cranes are the largest bird in North America standing ~5' tall. In the 1920s due to ( Read more... )

Comments 7

fauxmaven August 22 2009, 14:18:15 UTC

2 Thumbs up. I can almost forgive these guys for resembling the damned Blue Heron that has made me turn my pond into a fortress!

And thanx to your daughter, and to you 4 telling us about it.

resa53 August 22 2009, 16:36:01 UTC

Thanks ... This is a great program and I'm really proud of my daughter and the entire crew. Sorry about the herons ... I'm sure the Cranes would eat the fish too though if they went that far west. We're planning on putting in a fish pond and are thinking about ways to protect the fish short of putting them inside ;). What have you had to do to protect yours?

fauxmaven August 22 2009, 20:19:19 UTC

Monofilament fishline works a treat. String it in a zigzag across the pond and around the perimeter at about 2' in height.

resa53 August 24 2009, 00:01:54 UTC

Thanks ... sounds like a great idea. We'll have to try it if we ever get the pond in.

labsquint August 23 2009, 03:08:11 UTC

What an absolutely fantastic organization. It sounds like the whopping crane is sort of like the peregrine falcon; it's wonderful to hear that the successful efforts of hard working people like this are making a real difference and bringing these species back from the brink. Better still would be if we didn't hunt animals like this to the brink of extinction but kudos to those that step up and do what needs doing. And I saw and loved Fly Away Home, so I know exactly what you mean by teaching them migration techniques.

I'm looking at this too late, so I can't see anything on the crane cam, so I'll leave it up to look at tomorrow. But the promo is awesome.

You must be very proud of the work that she is doing. Because it is very good and important work...

resa53 August 24 2009, 00:06:16 UTC

Thanks ... we are very proud of her. I'm so glad she has the chance to do this. (I'm kind of envious actually ;) ... I'd love to be able to do it as well.)

It's interesting that the movie 'Fly Away Home' was based on the initial experiments they (Joe Duff was in charge) did to see if this kind of thing would actually work. Once they saw it would work on geese they tried it on Sandhill Cranes (very similar to Whoopers, but smaller grey and not endangered). It worked with the Sandhills so they went for broke and started with the Whoopers in 2001. Hopefully, they'll be able to continue.

Hope you get a chance to watch the CraneCam ... it's interesting to see them interact with each other and if you get up early enough and the weather is good you'll actually get to see them train ... it's awesome. :)

labsquint August 24 2009, 00:28:35 UTC

Hope you get a chance to watch the CraneCam ... it's interesting to see them interact with each other and if you get up early enough and the weather is good you'll actually get to see them train ... it's awesome. :)

I've have watched it, and they were having a pretty mellow day today; nothing major going on. I'll have to watch in the mornings and see if I can catch some of the training. Thanks!