# Wayward whooping crane visits Vermont again



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Wayward crane visits Vermont again

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060512/NEWS02/605120309/1007&theme=

Friday, May 12, 2006

A rare whooping crane that made a historic, if errant, visit to Vermont last summer stopped in again for a brief stay this month. 

This sojourn ended the same way last summer's ended, with the crane captured, crated and sent in the proper direction in the belly of an airplane.

The birds are supposed to nest and summer in Wisconsin and winter on Florida's Gulf Coast. In both locations, they're closely watched, as humans try to stabilize and increase the dwindling population which is down to only about 400 known wild birds. Most of the birds, like whooping crane No. 309, are banded and electronically tracked. 

No. 309 has a flawed navigational system, according to Liz Condie of Operation Migration, a leading whooping crane caretaker organization.

She found her way to the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Addison County in June, eventually migrated as far south as North Carolina, and was caught and flown to Florida. 

This spring, No. 309 led an impressionable younger crane north, ending up just west of the Adirondacks, near Watertown, N.Y., before flying to Dead Creek -- again -- in late April. Once the birds hopped across the Adirondacks again, handlers had seen enough. 

On May 5, a volunteer dressed in a crane costume led the wayward travelers into a trap. They were put into a crate and flown to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge about 150 miles northwest of Milwaukee. 

Assuming she stays put, the 3-year-old whooping crane will be spending her first summer where she belongs -- in Wisconsin. In addition to Vermont, she has summered in the past in Michigan and in New York.


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