Update on Migration, Emigration, and Immigration...

This post really is about an update to my 1/8/07 post on the Whooping Crane revival...but I also realized there are 2 semi-homonyms related to 'migration' that probably need clarifying.

If you leave one country for another, you are an "emigrant" from your home country. If you are arriving in a country from another place, you are an "immigrant" to your new country. Now you know. We now return you to the original blog theorum at hand...


Birds migrate. We have no real clues how, except there must be some sort of geo-magnetic sensor internal to the avian brain that helps define the time and travel lines/impetus. We do know they 'learn' from their parents...but what if their parents are killed or die off? How do they learn? Can they be taught? Such is the basis for the extraordinary work done by Dr. Bill Lishman and Joe Duff of "Operation Migration". In honor of their research at that time, Sony Films made a 1996 movie called "Fly Away Home", revolving around the aforementioned scientists' work.

Most of you may remember newborn birds 'imprint' on that which they first see when they hatch. They see you? You are their 'mom', in no uncertain terms....or not? Lishman's birds were imprinted with the noise of ultralight engines while the avians-to-be were still in their eggs...very interesting reading. The Lishman-Duff efforts were directed at re-training almost-extinct Whooper Crane populations to migrate, but they began their experiments by working with Canada Geese. Thus the movie. The ultralight plane. The geese flying easily alongside in formation. Fascinating research and ensuing movie. Their work continues on today (see the above link to "O.M.") Now hold that thought...

"Operation Migration", 2006

So I get an out-of-the-blue email from a former teaching colleague of mine from Woodberry Forest School days, Abigail James. She found my blog almost by accident doing an internet search for NC weather, or something like that, best I can remember. Got hooked, and keeps up with my random entries (poor Abigail...!) And so I entered the blog about the crane migrations, how their populations are up but not out of danger.

Abigail proceeds to relate to me a story of Lishman actually in the midst of his migration flight, with the ultralights and birds landing on the expansive athletic fields of Woodberry's spacious campus of (then) 1,400 acres...it was just after the movie had been filmed, though no pics around that she is aware of to send along...for inquiring minds I am reprinting, with her permission, the excitement felt to have this piece of history take a night's respite on the gorgeous school property in central Virginia...

"The Thursday before Thanksgiving vacation (and if you remember the WFS schedule the day before fall exams were to begin) a student came into my Psych class saying "You are not going to believe it! Three ultralights have landed on the far soccer fields with a lot of Canadian geese." After I pointed out that indeed, the geese may have come from Canada - and in fact they had, they were named after Dr. Canada who discovered them - I ran to get Jim Reid (Science Chair) and he and I drove down with our students. Fortunately, Jim also knew about Lishman and his geese. I couldn't believe it, Lishman himself was there - he was not flying any of the ultralights, but following in an RV. Here is what happened.

That summer, the movie folks were with him in Canada filming Fly Away Home, a movie based on his flights with the geese. If you have seen the movie, you will see that the ultralights were tricked out to look something like geese and two of those landed at WFS. The naturalists at Airslie Plantation - north of Warrenton - had been interested in Lishman for the very reason of helping endagered migratory birds to learn their migratory paths again - specifically whooping cranes. The idea was that they would try it with Canadas first (after all nobody cares what happens to them) to see if it worked. So the folks in Warrenton also raised a flock of geese. When the time came, Lishman and the birds he had flew to Warrenton to join that flock - a matter of 5 days. The Thursday that the whole group took off from Warrenton was very windy and cold and the barometer was dropping. Consequently the birds from Warrenton who had not been in the movie and did not have alot of flying time began to flag and they looked for a likely place to rest the birds. The group came across the trees and saw 5 playing fields laid out together - perfect! Jim and I were enthralled and took all of our students to talk with the folks and see the geese. We invited the group for lunch and then the weather really crapped out on them so they stayed the night. One thing I learned that was fascinating was that the birds were not imprinted on the ultralights but on the engine noise! The handlers used to play recordings of ultralight sounds to the eggs before they hatched. The other thing is that geese are destructive as when they eat grass, they pull it out by the roots - like sheep. So we had to get them to move the geese off of the fields. The next morning at 7:00, the group took off.

One of my students lived in South Carolina literally next door to the nature preserve where the geese were being taken so he contacted the handlers when he went home and kept in contact with them so we know what happened. Within three days of arriving in South Carolina, the geese all disappeared - and they had these large orange collars on so it was hard to miss them. The handlers were very concerned, but stayed in South Carolina until March when they went back to Warrenton and Canada to see if the geese would return - my student told me that they were convinced that the geese were long gone. In mid April in Virginia and a week later in Canada, the geese all returned - the numbers who did not return were almost all accounted for by hunters or by natural deaths.

One other thing that was fascinating was that Lishman told us that another group of geese were being shepherded down a different way. One idea about migratation is that the birds read the changing patterns of the stars so the idea was to truck the geese 50 miles and then take them out of the trucks and put them in pens for 36 hours (2 nights) and then truck them 50 more miles. The idea is that trucking will be safer for every one and cheaper. Unfortunately, very few of those birds returned and usually in the company of the birds that flew. So Operation Migration uses the original ultralight method and I'm thrilled to know that they have been successful with the cranes. Thought you would like to know of the small part that Woodberry played in this project. Where the geese were originally heading was FUMA (Fork Union Military Academy) so we were even more happy to have provided a haven for the birds! (ed: inside joke for Tiger alums…!)"

Thanks, Abigail...'perspectives' are good things! What a sight that must have been at the Forest in particular, with the rolling farmland and the Blue Ridge of the Shenandoah National Park serving as a backdrop some 25 miles west.

looking west from campus, Woodberry Forest School

It's a small world out there, Friends. So when you believe in something really strongly, and you think no one will really notice or care, or that it won't make a difference...please think again. We really CAN change this world and make it safer and saner in every way. Keep the faith. The greatest of journeys and expeditions all begin with a first step forward...

By the way, if you've read this far, click on this link to watch the unique crane dance captured on video...