Posted by Mike Ramy on January 26, 2016 at 2:06 PM
I was fortunate enough to be asked to cover the lay-over for stop 20 of 23 during the 2015/16 migration in my Mother's home town of Ft Gaines Georgia by the local newspaper - The Southern Tribune in Cuthbert Georgia. The 3 day trip down south turned into 10 days to cover the story due to weather related delays and meetings that took key members of Operation Migration back to Wisconsin for several days. It was quite an experience as I got to be involved with all the members and the project as a whole way beyond what I expected to the point of making some endearing friendships. The story also took an unexpected turn, after 15 years, it was announced on Friday 1/22/16 that the plug was pulled on the ultralight guided migration part of the program so I was not only covering this years migration, but the last of the migrations as well. Click HERE for further information and to read the article I submitted that is being published in the 1/28/16 issue of the newspaper. Click on the above image to view Large Version
Posted by Jim Gavin on January 27, 2016 at 2:45 AM
Nice photo. Great story. Sad ending. Thanks for sharing this information.
Mike, a truly wonderful article but disappointing termination of the program. I've been aware of this Ultralight program through various articles and nature programs on TV for years now and sad to see the end to the support overall. Thank you for taking the time to participate on the recent and last venture there, as well as sharing the story with us here at NPN.
Posted by Mark Seaver on January 27, 2016 at 5:05 PM
A fine image, Mike. Yes, it's sad to have this stop because it's such an inspiring story, but the point was to teach the birds to migrate an that hopefully has happened....I guess next year will tell.
Discussion
3 repliesI was fortunate enough to be asked to cover the lay-over for stop 20 of 23 during the 2015/16 migration in my Mother's home town of Ft Gaines Georgia by the local newspaper - The Southern Tribune in Cuthbert Georgia. The 3 day trip down south turned into 10 days to cover the story due to weather related delays and meetings that took key members of Operation Migration back to Wisconsin for several days. It was quite an experience as I got to be involved with all the members and the project as a whole way beyond what I expected to the point of making some endearing friendships. The story also took an unexpected turn, after 15 years, it was announced on Friday 1/22/16 that the plug was pulled on the ultralight guided migration part of the program so I was not only covering this years migration, but the last of the migrations as well. Click HERE for further information and to read the article I submitted that is being published in the 1/28/16 issue of the newspaper.
Click on the above image to view Large Version