Whooping Cranes now in Georgia

Last Tuesday, the 20 whoopers migrating from Wisconsin to Florida with help from ultralight aircraft were in Fentress County, Tenn.

Today, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said they've arrived in Gordon County, Ga. The birds and their human pilot have covered about 130 miles, if my Rand McNally map-reading abilities aren't completely off.

Click on the map to see a larger version of it. For detailed updates about the project, visit Operation Migration's Field Journal.

UPDATE: A hot-off-the-presses news release from USFWS said the flock is down to 19 cranes. The youngest of the flock, number 26, was found dead Nov. 10 at an Indiana stopover.

"It had one visible injury, around the left eye," the release stated. "A brief field examination by a veterinarian shed little light on the bird's death, and it was sent to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., for a necropsy."