Whooping cranes continue their migration through Alabama

Just over a dozen people gathered on a small hill near off of Mt Pisgah Road in Walker County to view a flock of five juvenile whooping cranes as they followed behind two ultralight aircraft Thursday November 15, 2012 as they continued their journey south for the winter. Each year Operation Migration raises whooping cranes that were hatched in captivity and trains them to follow ultralight aircraft to train them to migrate south for the winter. - Frank Couch/fcouch@al.com http://bit.ly/QMnS8R

Environmentalists fight for whoopers' water

http://bit.ly/WaLqFX The whoopers are back, but even as the famed birds settle in at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge for what promises to be a mild winter, the legal controversy surrounding them lingers. - by Dianna Wray - DWRAY@VICAD.COM

Cranes star in annual festival

The Bosque del Apache community celebrates the "silver anniversary" of its popular Festival of the Cranes this week with six days of activities in and around the central New Mexico U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge through Sunday. http://bit.ly/S0wpBY