Notes from the field - of cranes and men: reintroduction of cranes to a migratory pathway--part II

摘要

Day 22: I awoke at 5 AM. The stars were bright in the sky, and just a sliver of a moon was rising in the east. However, wisps of fog were forming in the valleys. By 6 AM, our caravan was stirring and the fog was thickening. A quick early morning meeting of the pilots resulted in a hold being put on flight plans to wait and see what would happen with the fog. Later we went down to the runway with the small hanger located at one end. We could not even see the cranes' pen located halfway down the runway on the opposite side from our location. However, as we started to refuel the ultralight aircraft, we could see the fog beginning to lift and the crane pen became visible. Slowly the fog lifted and cleared the valley, so by 8:30 AM the pilots decided that the time was right to begin today's flight. The cranes and ultralights lifted off, circled the hanger, and headed south (Fig 1). We headed for the pickup truck pulling the pen trailer and drove out to the now-abandoned portable pen. We quickly had the pen on the trailer and headed back up the valley toward our other vehicles.