Whooping cranes fly over Illinois

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PECATONICA, Ill. (AP) — Some lucky Illinois residents have had a chance to see something very rare in the sky above them.

Operation Migration's 2009 class of whooping cranes is making its flight from Wisconsin to Florida and the flock made its way across parts of Illinois Thursday.

The 20 juvenile cranes left Wisconsin early in the morning and flew over Pecatonica in Winnebago County about 8:15 a.m.

The birds, led by an ultralight aircraft, were in the beginning stages of a 1,200-mile journey from Necedah, Wis., to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

Since 2001, Operation Migration has been a group focused on reintroducing the endangered whooping cranes into eastern North America. There about 500 whooping cranes in existence — 350 of them in the wild.

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Information from: Rockford Register Star, http://www.rrstar.com