Page 10 - Walton Living

Aircraft-led migration technique relies on the
birds’ natural instinct called imprinting. Imprinting
means the just-hatched waterfowl chick immedi-

object. As soon as the chicks hatch, they bond with
their parents and become inseparable. The OM
team acts as surrogate parents, helping the birds
imprint on the aircraft and conditioning them to

are led south by the OM team on a pre-determined
route to a safe wintering site.
“Essentially, our pilots took the place of par-
ents to teach the introduced Whooping Cranes a
suitable migration route,” said Heather Ray of
Operation Migration.
Pilots are only one of many volunteer roles. For
Cindy Hayes of Walton County, it was only natural
for her to step up to the plate.
Hayes recalls the impetus behind her interest in
OM. “I have always had a special place in my heart
for birds, since 2nd grade when I was asked to do

owned parrots over the years and have successfully
hand raised wild birds that had fallen out of the
nest way too young.”
“The fact that OM was looking for volunteers
to help with their project was pointed out to me
by my wife who found the open request online. It
really piqued my interest. Once I read the variety
of tasks that volunteers would be expected to do
I knew that this adventure was right in my wheel-
house!”

of the Ground Crew. She had a plethora of duties
from moving the crew camp from one site to the
next. This included dismantling and hauling travel
trailers and bird pens as well as occasional visits to
bird pens to do a “pen check” to make sure every-
thing was running smoothly for the birds, releasing
of the birds from the pen so they could follow the
pilots and photographing the birds and pilots on
release days.

“Essentially, our

pilots took the place

of parents to teach

the introduced

Whooping Cranes

a suitable migration

route.”

10 Walton Living Magazine