By Jacque Day
Union County, Ky. – Eleven endangered whooping cranes on an ultralight-guided migration will spend Thanksgiving in western Kentucky. They landed Tuesday in Union County. Liz Condie is one of ten members of Operation Migration traveling with the young birds on their first migration from Wisconsin to Florida. Their next stop is Marshall County. They were scheduled to take off Wednesday, but, she says, they decided to stay put.
"We're stuck on the ground. Everybody in this area will know that we got pelted with lots of rain. We obviously can't migrate with the birds in this kind of weather."
These cranes are among fewer than one hundred in eastern North America. The guided migration is part of a coordinated effort between Operation Migration the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several other agencies to ensure the survival of the species.