Thanks to all of you who responded to my plea and signed the petition allowing Operation Migration to continue escorting the Class of 2011 whooping crane chicks to Florida. The FAA granted the pilots a waver.
The good news: all the chicks are healthy and eager to fly.
The bad news: today’s attempt was aborted.
This was the first morning this week that the weather cooperated and a migration takeoff looked promising. The pilots revved their engines, the chicks were released, and up they went. Soon after becoming airborne, the cranes scattered. The pilots did their best to round up their wards, but after four chicks dropped out, the flight was aborted and they returned to the pens. As migration day 77 comes to an end, the best thing is that all nine cranes are safe and they had a chance to exercise their rusty wings. In the words of Scarlett O’Hara, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”

This information came from the OM website: http://www.operationmigration.org/
Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website’s “In the Field.” You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc. And you can sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.