Migrating Sandhill Cranes on the Platte River, Nebraska

tags: migrating sandhill cranes, Grus canadensis, Platte River, birds, birding, bird watching

This past weekend, Dave, Elizabeth and I drove from Manhattan, Kansas to the Platte River in next-door Nebraska to see the migrating sandhill cranes, Grus canadensis. These flocks of migratory cranes are a mixture of greater and lesser sandhill cranes along with some hybrids between these two subspecies, often referred to as intermediate sandhill cranes. (There also are sedentary subspecies of sandhill cranes, all of which are endangered). I grew up watching greater sandhill cranes, G. c. tabida, migrate along the west coast and have likely also seen some lesser sandhill cranes, G. c. canadensis mixed into those crowds as well.

Even though they look nearly identical to the unpracticed eye, these two subspecies of sandhill cranes have very different life histories: 'greaters' are short-distance migrants, breeding in mid-continental North America from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean and wintering in California and Florida; while 'lessers' are long-distance migrants, breeding in the far northern reaches of North America and Siberia and wintering on a handful of lakes in Texas and Mexico. Similar to different migratory flyways being followed by the two subspecies, different populations of these birds will also follow other migratory routes through other locales, and may never be seen on the Platte River. According to annual aerial surveys of the Platte River birds that take place on the same day of the year, the total population of those birds that pass over the Platte River in Nebraska during their northward migration is estimated to be roughly 800,000 individuals.

This image was snapped from an old railroad bridge that spans the Platte River, looking toward the blind. This river is very shallow; even though it was muddy, we could see the bottom from our perch on the bridge. You can also see some of the small sandy islands that the birds roost on at night;

Every morning at sunrise, the sandhill cranes dispersed from their roost on the river to feed in the nearby corn fields. The feeding cranes' hunched-over bodies resembled water-worn boulders against the golden corn stubble. The birds were getting fat on corn and insects and, when they were in marshy fields, they also ate snails and other small animals;

The adult cranes often danced while feeding, as you can see in the enlarged version of this image;

Watching them dance in the windswept fields gave me an appreciation of their wild exuberance.

The cranes would hang around in breeding pairs and trios and occasionally in quartets (a mated pair with their offspring from the previous year). These birds mate for life, which can be for 25 or more years although, like all birds, they will seek out another mate if their partner dies. Thus, it was unusual to see a lone bird and when I did see one, it always made me feel sad since that bird's mate was probably lost to a collision with power lines or predators.

Here, we are looking toward the blind (not visible), which is on the far side of this background thicket, overlooking the Platte River (not visible);

When we entered the blind, we scared a barn owl which had decided to use it as his own roosting area. He shrieked at us and flew into the nearby trees, where we quickly lost sight of him. Interestingly, even though this area appears to be superb habitat for barn owls, they are actually quite rare.

After we entered the blind, we discovered an owl pellet, still wet, on the floor, which I brought back to NYC, along with an assortment of feathers, a sand-covered deer coccyx and a handful of fossil brachiopods and crinoids.

As evening approached, we watched the cranes fly back to the Platte River en masse from our vantage point the blind, where they roosted on small sandy islands in the middle of the shallow river where they were safe from predators;

As seen from the blind, a group of sandhill cranes roosting on the sandy islands in the river at dusk, preparing to go to sleep;

Cranes at sunset flying to their roost on the Platte River;

At first, I had hoped the cranes would fly between the sun and me so I could capture their dark silhouettes against the bright orange sun. Dave also hoped the same thing but alas, neither one of us was lucky. However, watching the sun go down was a lovely way to end the evening.

Since I have a digital camera and thus, don't have to pay for film and developing, I had fun playing with my camera. The series of images that I managed to capture were quite interesting since the clouds were not visible to us until the sun set behind them, making it almost look as though the sun was being eaten by some large creature, as you can see here. I really like this picture;

After it was dark, we left the blind very quietly. The wind was quite strong and cold, so we were all happy to get back to the car where we could thaw out. A small group of us went out to a pub for some really good and hoppy beers, not that watery megabrewery crap they sell in NYC.