![]() ![]() “I have a camera and binoculars ready at all times,” says Bethany Ostrom, a wildlife biologist who conducts aerial surveys of the birds, to the Omaha World-Herald’s Marjie Ducey. The weekly crane counts, posted on the Crane Trust’s website, not only help curious birders around the world stay in the loop, but they also allow biologists to track migratory trends over time. Occasionally, they’ll spot a bright white whooping crane among the sandhills, but these endangered birds are a rare sight in Nebraska. “To me,” he adds, “it is sound that stirs the spirit.”Įvery Monday during the migration, wildlife biologists in Nebraska count the cranes-as well as other incidental birds, like trumpeter swans, bald eagles and dark geese-while flying overhead in a small airplane. The call of sandhill cranes can be heard at tremendous distances.” When large groups of cranes call out at the same time, they fill the air with loud, otherworldly sounds.Īs columnist Rick Windham writes for the North Platte Telegraph, “You will most likely hear long before you see them. To communicate, they make a trilling noise that ornithologists describe as a rattling bugle. They have long, skinny legs and a distinctive dark red patch on their heads. Sandhill cranes are large birds, typically standing between three and four feet tall. The annual migration is an impressive spectacle to behold. In central Nebraska, the cranes eat corn that's left over from last fall's harvest. Per the National Audubon Society, they can gain as much as 20 percent of their body weight during their short stay in Nebraska. They spend their days pecking around in empty corn fields, then return to the safety of the river each night to roost. Their numbers tend to gradually increase until they peak in mid to late March.Įach crane stays in central Nebraska for about a month, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. The first few thousand birds start arriving in central Nebraska in early to mid-February, though the timeline fluctuates from year to year. ![]() Roughly 27,000 sandhill cranes have already arrived along the river between the towns of Chapman and Overton, according to the latest figures from the nonprofit Crane Trust, which conducts a weekly count of the cranes.Īs they journey north, sandhill cranes stop for roughly a month in Nebraska every spring.ĭuring the winter, the cranes live in Mexico, Florida, Texas and Arizona. While there, they feast on corn kernels left over from last fall’s harvest-as well as bugs and other critters-before making the long journey to their breeding grounds in Alaska, Canada and eastern Siberia. Just as they’ve done for thousands of years, sandhill cranes are once again descending upon central Nebraska for their annual stopover as they migrate north.Įvery spring, hundreds of thousands of the lanky gray birds congregate in the Platte River Valley of the Cornhusker State. ![]()
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