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Sandhill Cranes moving north

10 years ago

I was on a photo outing this morning with a friend in southern Indiana. We spotted appox. 3000-4000 sandhill cranes in cornfields and meadows. As they departed they were flying north by northwest. If you spot and flights or roosting spots please post. I would love to know when they get back to their breeding grounds. Plenty of courtship dancing going on in the flocks we saw today.

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Comments (7)

shillanorth Z4 AB
10 years ago
Well, that is good news, indeed. Thanks for the update and although we are having some rather frosty weather it is good to know they are on their way. I used to see them in the NWT in May/June - always a welcome sight.
countryatheart
10 years ago
I have never seen the courtship but will definitely be watching for it. I spotted a few small flocks over east central Illinois last weekend. Birds are migrating, they seem sure that spring will come. Me, I don't know. In the fall there were sandhill cranes that stopped in a field near where I work (southwest suburbs of Chicago). They stayed a few weeks and then were gone again. I had never seen them that up close before. They are a beautiful bird.
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Care to take a short drive through the sandhills?
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Comments (11)
I remember traveling through Nebraska occasionally when my parents were driving back and forth to the West Coast. I loved the solitude, but it does take special kind of person to live it. I lived for awhile in Kansas, a state right under Nebraska, when my first husband was an engineer for a pipeline. It was just a short jaunt for us to go across the Oklahoma panhandle into Texas, so where we lived had more of a S.W. taste than Nebraska, and lacked those beautiful hills. Coming from an area with hilly terrain, and then being transplanted for many more years as a young adult in equally hilly terrains of the Ozarks, I felt desperately out of place in the sandy flatlands. What strikes me most about the interior prairies of this country are the extremes. You are either freezing to death, burning up, wishing for rain, or dodging tornadoes. But, the creatures who live there, and the miles and miles of openness are haunting and beautiful.
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Sandhills
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Comments (6)
Next time Michelle, invite them to lunch. They would be great conversationalist what with their constant traveling north to south and back again. Better yet throw them a welcome home party. I share your joy in seeing these magnificent birds. Neil and I used to run out of the house with binoculars in hand and watch them til they got out of sight as they flew over the lake flock after flock. One of the sad things I heard the other day was somewhere in TN where flocks of them used to stop to eat corn in the fields near the river that the folks who always bought extra loads of corn to scatter in the fields for them couldn't do it this year due to the economy.
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Sand hill crane
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Comments (24)
My sad story. There is a pair of cranes that live near me. They had two babies earlier this year & every morning they would pass through my yard from the vacant block to the lake. One morning I heard them making the most awful loud noise, as only a sandhill crane can. Looking out the door, I saw two stray dogs chasing the adults through the neighbors yard. I ran out, yelling & waving my arms. The dogs stopped, looked at me for a moment then left. Obvious, the adults were trying to lead the dogs away from their young. A few minutes later the adults reappeared with only one baby. Obviously, the dogs had killed one. I have pictures I took the first time they came throught my yard with the babies. They were covered in their soft yellow down before any feathers appeared. It makes me so mad that people let their dogs run loose.
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To all Wisc, members -Sandhill
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Comments (12)
Kate; The state of Kansas opened in 1993 a season for hunting Sandhill Cranes- thus the seven (7) hunters in Kansas last year who shot and killed 2 of the 3 Whoopers that morning not only tarnished the public image of "ethical hunters" and undermined the DNR reputation for wildlife stewardship, but caused great harm by reducing the population of adult Whoopers traversing from Canada(Wood Buffalo) to Texas by 3% percent. The other bad thing about this is it took "other" people to report the shootings ,after finding wounded Whoopers.- What are we teaching our illustrious "gun-slingers", "Humanity" going Backwards. --------------------------------------------------------- - On March 15,2005 another one of the youngsters from the 2004 class of Whoopers who left Wisconsin last fall following the trike planes , and have stayed in Florida was found eaten by a bobcat. The remaining 12 youngsters from 2004 class should be starting thier 1200 mile journey back to Necedah anytime soon- this time they are on "their own", no one to lead and guide them, they might even wonder all over the Midwest Area, just like some who wondered off into Michigan, one who stayed in Illinos all year, it's nice hear their KREER- kREER overhead when they spiral, float and head North to the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
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catherinet
10 years ago
Cool!
I live in central Indiana and we heard quite a few of them last week.
A place in northern Indiana (Jasper-Pulaski game preserve) is an area where they stop over in the Fall migration (maybe spring too?). We went one year and around dusk, they started flying in from all directions. According to the DNR, their numbers reach 30,000-40,000 that stop there. I guess they spend the night in a marsh area nearby and then continue their journey. We're under their flyway, and I look forward to seeing/hearing them every Fall and early Spring.
The Indiana DNR keeps tracks of their numbers, so that people who want to see them stop-over in northern Indiana know when to go to see the most.

About 30 years ago, when we first moved out here into the country, they landed in a field next to us. So neat!!

2 years ago, I heard them in January. I could never figure out why I heard them at that time.....although I think that was just before our drought.....so maybe they knew something we didn't.

Here's a pic I got of them a couple years ago. Wish I could have gotten a closer pic.

I like to look for the occasional whooping crane that sometimes travels with them, but haven't seen any yet.
beegood_gw
10 years ago
Well I hope they take the scenic route as it's still very cold (in the -30s C ) with several feet of snow here in Alberta. If you see any tell them to SLOOW down.
Aurore
10 years ago
They've had some breeding pairs in Montezuma Wildlife preserve here in New York. I've seen about thirty birds there during migration. Seems like they may be spreading out to other areas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Montezuma
Gjack
Original Author
10 years ago
No whooping cranes in the flocks that we saw. But we did spot a few trumpeter swans while we were out mixed in a large flocks of ducks and geese
hostanista
10 years ago
Dear Gjack:
You say you were on a "photo outing" and saw 3000 to 4000 sand cranes? Where are the pictures?!!! C'mon man! We'd LOVE to see those shots! You did take some, right? Please?

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