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Field Training 2004

Field Training - Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

July 18 - 23, 2004

The view from the cockpit as Joe Duff prepares to lift off and begin an early morning training flight with the Cohort One cranes at the North Site.
Joe's group returns after a 15-minute flight.
I often wonder if, after a successful flight, the cranes discuss among themselves how things went?
From left: Operation Migration Pilot, Richard van Heuvelen goes over the training plan with Patuxent Wildlife Research Center's, Barb Niccolai, and OM Intern Tatiana Zhuchkova. Tatiana is spending the '04 season working with us before returning to her home in Russia. Researchers are hopeful that the knowledge she returns with will help with a similar reintroduction involving Siberian cranes and hang-gliders, which would begin in 2006.  
At the East Site, Richard taxies with the two youngest chicks, #419 & 420. These two girls have yet to be airborne because they were the last to hatch and their flight feathers are not yet fully developed.
An aerial view of the East Site. Several modifications were made to this largest of the three training areas location on the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. It is at this site where all three cohorts will be eventually combined.

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