 For the past 8 years, Operation Migration has led endangered whooping crane juveniles to Florida for the winter.
This year the nearly 1,400 mile migration route was altered to avoid the Appalachian Mountains and, lucky for us, the new migration route flew over western Kentucky.
Four ultralights led fourteen whooping cranes through our area on the way from a national wildlife refuge in Wisconsin to national wildlife refuge in Florida.
In 1940, only 15 whooping cranes were alive in this world and the future of the bird looked extraordinarily bleak. The Eastern US flyway had not seen whooping cranes since 1900 and all birds in 1940 were in the western flyway from Texas to Canada. After discovering the summer nesting area in a national wildlife refuge area in Canada, the US and Canadian conservation groups began an effort to strengthen the western flyway numbers.
After success in increasing the western whooping crane numbers and over concern that a disease might wipe out the single colony, conservationist began an effort to reintroduce whooping cranes to the eastern flyway. These birds were incubator raised and would not migrate in the winter since that is a parent-learned behavior.
Wintering in the bitter north takes a toll on birds so a group of dedicated pilots and scientist studied ultralight plane-led migration of Canada geese. Those ultralight migration efforts had met with great success as had several other bird species migrations. In 2000, the first group of juvenile birds was led from Wisconsin to Florida successfully. The trip took approximately 2 months and the migration route included Indiana, central Kentucky and central/eastern Tennessee, Georgia then Florida.
A problem area for this migration route was the ascent over the Appalachian mountain chain. The birds that normally flew at several hundred feet above the ground were required to fly up to 3000 feet to get over the ridges. This led to a rather chaotic aerial rodeo and the unfortunate loss of a few birds who simply wouldn't gain elevation.
After the first successful migration south, the conservationist held their breath the next spring, wondering if the birds would migrate north. In mid March the birds left Florida and approximately 6-8 weeks later, returned to their birthplace in Wisconsin. The project was a success!
Each October since 2000 they have flown juvenile, incubator-raised birds south and this year was no exception. The Class of 2008 consisted of 14 birds, 4 ultralights, a small Cessna airplane and a host of ground crews who toted pens for overnight protection, food, all the surveillance equipment (each bird is fitted with radio leg bands, a few have satellite bands).
On a frosty morning on December 5, 2008, approximately 100 people were gathered in clear 22 degree weather at Lighthouse Missionary Baptist Church west of Hardin, Kentucky (mile 525 of their 1,400 mile trip).This was the third morning we had gathered. High winds aloft had kept the planes grounded but this morning the winds proved to be more calm. We gathered at this church in a sort of "creature fellowship/reverence" just to catch a glimpse of America's tallest birds fly in tandem with their "mother bird" or ultralights. These birds belong to the oldest family of birds and were flying this earth 60 million years ago!
At 7:00 AM, four ultralights flew from south to north over the church. Everyone waited and watched the sky for the ultralights to return with the birds. The method of bird take-off if for the ultralights to fly over the unpenned birds (kept in a secret location) and hope the birds lift into the air with the ultralights flying overhead. When we saw the first ultralights returning from the north, headed south, we could not spot any birds at first. Slowly we began to make out "dots" on either wing of one ultralight.
As they neared, we counted 13 birds --beautiful long white birds with black tips on their wings and a cinnamon neck and red crested head. Some flapping and some coasting, they traveled in the traditional V-pattern with the "mother bird"/ultralight in the lead! As they soared low and directly overhead, we could hear the flap of wings and the steady lightweight drone of the ultralight motor. The crowd watched silently with respect for a miracle in progress.
As for number 14? After the 13 birds passed, we looked back to the north and saw a single ultralight with one bird on the wing. . . number 14, flying high! 
The birds' immediate destination when they left us was approx. 90 miles south in Carroll County, Tennessee.
After reading the latest entries, I discovered that the birds were able (due to a nice tailwind) to continue past Carroll County Tennessee and travel down further to near Savannah, Tennessee (halfway through their entire migration!).
Efforts such as these renew hope that men can recognize the error of destructive behavior to species, mend their ways and even (with hard work and determination) begin to repair the damage we humans can do to the other creatures on this earth.
Thank you for providing such hope, Operation Migration!
-- And it was Lincoln who wrote, in his second annual message to Congress, in December 1862: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
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