The birds don't leave in one big flock, but instead leave in small groups. A pair may go, and sometimes a neighboring pair will actually take off right behind them and all migrate together. 30 minutes later some other cranes from the same area depart. Usually several small groups of cranes may all leave the same day, but not be flying together. I've always felt that one pair's departure may actually influence other birds to start the migration.
Today is the first day in about two weeks where the cranes have excellent migration conditions.
Instead of headwinds from the north, the winds are blowing from the southeast at about 20 miles per hour. These tail winds, plus thermal currents resulting from temperatures in the 70s and partial sunshine, will make it easy for the cranes to make progress northwards, and could persuade some of the whooping cranes to leave today. Similar weather conditions are predicted all week, so I'll make a prediction that a majority of the whooping cranes will depart right on schedule the first two weeks in April. Our researcher doing studies of the blue crab population just completed three days of sampling at the end of March. Blue crabs are the favorite food of the whooping cranes.