Hello from Site 3 (DAR site), Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.  It definitely feels like winter is fast approaching!  The chicks have been exposed to many new adventures over the past week.  The weather brought a variety of sun, wind, rain and snow.  The chicks seemed to enjoy testing their wings in the winds.  Several days our birds made flights where they were almost out of view flying both to the north and south of Site 3.  A couple of times they were out of view for a period of time. 

One of these times coincided with reports from viewers of the ultra-light program’s web cam.  They saw birds outside of the pen and reported to the crew that the chicks were loose.  It was determined that these were some of the DAR birds sneaking over to visit the ultralight cohort, possibly with older cranes #11 & 17-02 who have been flying from Site 3 to Site 1(ultralight site) on a fairly regular basis over the last several weeks. This occurred before our DAR chicks were radio tagged. 

Fortunately, Tuesday afternoon we banded the chicks so we will know where they go when they take off for the strength training flight!  Five people participated in the banding.  Dr. Richard Urbanek and DAR interns Kate Wyman and Katie Farrell from USFWS, Brian Clauss from USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and myself –ICF.  Kate and Katie got the ball rolling by wearing white crane costumes, leading the chicks down to the chick yard at Site 3 and locking the birds into outside runs.  The birds were placed in the runs to reduce the amount of chasing and/or prevent the birds from flying away when the gray costume came out to capture them for banding.   

Brian and I wore gray costumes and took turns capturing/holding the birds for banding.  Once a bird was in hand, a hood was placed over its head to prevent it from seeing people during handling.  The bird was carried to the area outside of the chick yard, out of direct line of vision from the pond or birds in the runs.  This allowed work to be done without wearing a costume, and handlers got a short time reprieve from wearing the crane costume head piece.   Dr. Urbanek and Kate were waiting for us to put bands on the birds. 

The bands were first placed on the bird’s legs and then the radio or PTT (satellite transmitter) was glued onto the leg bands.   These color bands were placed above the hocks where they are more easily seen than near the foot.  A USFWS metal band with a unique identification number was placed on the right leg below the hock.  Once the banding was completed the gray costumes put hoods on them and brought them out to a visual isolated area to place bands on them.  Dr. Richard Urbanek placed color/radio bands on the nine DAR birds. The color bands are a various combination of the three colors green, red & white.  Four birds were also outfitted with PTTs.    

Once the birds were banded, the gray costumes put the chicks down in the chick yard, so they could go join Katie who was wearing a white costume and being a foster crane parent.  Katie’s presence would help calm the chicks and monitor how they dealt with being handled.  Any time you pick up a bird there is always a chance of injury, so we like to watch the birds for short periods after any handling occurs.  Fortunately, all the chicks came through with flying colors, although adjusting to their new leg jewelry will take some time.   Usually the chicks adjust to extra weight, antennae and bands on their legs within a few days, and take to the sky once more.   

Now that they have radio transmitters on, the DAR crew can breathe a little easier when the chicks fly out of view knowing we can find them if they get into trouble and don’t return.  Exciting times are just beginning! -Update by Marianne Wellington, ICF Aviculturist/WCEP DAR Co-chair.

                                                                                                                                                                                       The ultralight-led birds remain at the Necedah NWR, awaiting better weather to begin their migration.  Yesterday, five of the birds did make the flight to the first stopover, however, the other 15 remain at Necedah NWR. –Joan Garland, ICF Outreach Coordinator.