Observing the Sandhill Crane Migration

By Cindy Ross
Published on January 25, 2012
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Sandhill cranes landing in the fog
Sandhill cranes landing in the fog
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Cranes clean the stubble fields of any gleanings.
Cranes clean the stubble fields of any gleanings.
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The sandhill crane dance includes head bobbing, bowing, arching, jumping, wing flapping, running, and twig tossing.
The sandhill crane dance includes head bobbing, bowing, arching, jumping, wing flapping, running, and twig tossing.

In the shallows of the Platte River, it’s standing room only. Sandhill cranes pack the sandbars solid in front of our observation blind at Rowe Sanctuary, in Kearney, Nebraska. The far shore is lined a dozen thick. This is their favorite roosting position – 6 inches of shallow, slow-moving water surrounded by deeper water. It keeps the predators away.

We’ve come to this quiet corner of Nebraska to experience the cranes’ spring migration as they funnel onto the Platte along the Central Flyway from points south. The best way to do that is to participate in a guided blind tour, scheduled every daybreak and sunset while the cranes are migrating.

Sandhill crane morning ritual

People move around the inside of the blind, peer out the holes, look up and down the river, and gaze to the east where the sunrise is painting color into the sky. We speak in hushed voices, as if in a church. I settle at a corner window and rest my head, bending my ears outward to amplify the sound. It sounds like a crowd cheering. The sandhill crane call can be heard two to three miles away, made possible by their exceptionally long trachea. The extra length resonates much like the tubing in a trombone and helps project the vocalizations.

The music of the cranes’ bugling is constant. We listen for a change in pitch, an increase in intensity that signals they are about to lift off in search of a meal.

Before I arrived, it was difficult to imagine half a million elegant, prehistoric-looking birds flying, gathering, bugling and performing their mating dance. Words cannot describe the sheer volume of their numbers, with their 5- to 6-foot wingspans. But it is the sound that hits you – the intensity and volume of their musical voices. I could never tire of it. (To listen visit the U.S. Geological Survey’s Operation Crane Watch page.)

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