Sad update to Operation Migration

I saw this item in the Daytona Beach ( FL) News-Journal on Sunday Feb 4th. The 18 young Whooping Cranes that were brought to Central Florida, from Wisconsin this fall, following an ultralight airplane (Operation Migration), were all killed in the storms that hit the area Friday morning. They were in a pen, and were either electocuted by lightening strikes in the area or overwhelmed with flood waters, or heavy rain. Pathologists, at the University of Florida, will examine the birds to try to learn the cause of death. It is unknown if the storms killed any of previously released birds. Obviously this is a major setback for the program.

Yes this was very sad news.

I read that too. Such a loss!!!! Very, very sad indeed. ;'-(

Gosh, I hate hearing this sort of thing. What a sad developement.

Operation Migration has reported on their website that there is one survivor , Number 615!

I checked out the Operation Migration website. There's supposed to be a report about the surviving bird on NBC news at 6:30PM today

So sad to hear the news. Here is the announcement from the Operation Migration site: http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html