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January 17th, 2009 - St. Marks NWR - ARRIVAL |
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We had an incredible turnout this morning with well over two thousand
people who waited very patiently in the chilly temperatures for St.
Marks NWR's first flock of Whooping cranes to fly overhead. It was
great fun meeting everyone who stopped by our booth and the
excitement level was high. |
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Joe captured this image from his vantage point as chase pilot this
morning. Richard van Heuvelen had the responsibility of leading
cranes 805, 812, 813*, 826, 828, 829 and 830* the 28 miles from our
Jefferson County, FL stopover to the brand new winter pen site
located in an isolated salt marsh area of the St. Marks National
Wildlife Refuge. |
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The view again of Richard and his charges as he flew over the crowd
gathered in the City of St. Marks, FL. Unfortunately, it was
impossible to capture the entire crowd in the photo but there was at
least another section of people identical to that pictured above. |
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I captured this image from the public flyover location. As they passed
over the birds didn't flap at all - they simply glided by - riding
the vortices created by the wing of the aircraft. |
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After they flew past the crowd, Richard guided them the remaining
couple of miles over the salt marsh and to the new pen site. |
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Joe captured this shot as the 7 cranes glided down to Patuxent's Brian
Clauss and Jane Chandler, who were in costume and standing between
the two large ponds in the pen. The cranes are on the right
side/middle of the image. Once they landed, Brian and Jane led them
into the top-netted section (top center) where they'll be housed
until their final health check later this week. Each bird will be
fitted with their permanent leg bands and transmitters during the
health check so that they will only be handled one final time. |
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