Since this was the fourth day the migration has been stalled at our
South Juneau location, Brooke, Bev and I let the cranes out of the
travel enclosure early this morning to let them exercise their
wings. Brooke opened the gate while Bev and I stood off to the side.
Here the birds are flying over to us.
Time for them to get airborne! The quickest way to get them into
the air is to run while flapping the arms of our baggy white
costumes - they soon get the idea and take off.
Bev watches closely to ensure they don't decide to keep going...
I found that during the 45 minutes we had them out this morning, I
counted to 14 at least every two minutes.
As the winds picked up we called them back down. They're still a
bit awkward in the air, especially when the winds are gusting...
Once back on the ground they kept leaping; appearing at times to
be challenging each other to see who could jump the highest.
As Brooke and I led the majority of the group into the pen, Bev
rounded up a couple that weren't quite ready to call it a day.
Number 830 investigates my puppet to see if it has any treats to
offer.
