Moon

Sunset Palms

Sandhill Cranes in Flight

Each year thousands of sandhill cranes stop by the Platt River, in central Nebraska, to feed and rest during their spring migration north.

Unusual Sighting

A few years back I took a trip out to the Necedah NWR in central Wisconsin. I began to travel to Necedah the year before because it is known for being one of the best places in the world to photograph endangered Karner Blue butterflies. On this particular trip it was early October, which is a bit late in the season for Karners, but I had a free weekend day and wanted to go photograph some place that I had not photographed so often. The day was going well, photographing primarily red-headed woodpeckers, when as I was walking along a dirt road I spotted a pair of large white birds flying my way. As the got closer I was excited to see that it was a pair of whooping cranes.

The whooping crane is one of the largest birds in North America and it is highly endangered. They stand about 5 feet tall and have over a seven foot wingspan. Because of habitat loss and unregulated hunting the population of the whooping crane dropped to just 15 birds by 1941. They were added to the endangered species list in 1967.  Since this time their population has been increased slowly to about 400 - 500 birds today. 

Most of the cranes, around 300 or so, are a part of a flock that breeds in Wood Buffalo Park in Canada and winters in Aransas National Wildlife refuge in Texas. This flock are the decedents of the remaining 15. However there is concern about the population since they breed and winter together in the same location. A disease, natural disaster, or man made disaster could easily wipe out the entire flock in one shot. In order to avoid potential disaster the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership began to release birds into central Wisconsin. Young birds where then trained to fly to wintering grounds in Florida using ultra light aircraft. This project was based out of Necedah NWR. These birds are a part of the eastern flock, easy to tell because of the tracking bracelet on one of the legs, which now numbers over 100.      

Rowe Sanctuary

 

At the beginning of April I decided to take a short trip down to Nebraska to see the sandhill cranes. I had already been offered a job but since it took a while for the background check, drug test and all of the paper work to go through I decided it was the perfect time to head down to the Rowe Sanctuary. It had been many years since I last visited the sanctuary, I was still shooting film at the time, and typically the timing never seemed to work out. Either we were vacationing down south in late winter or we were heading to Yellowstone in May, either way it would be difficult to get away so close to another vacation. Since I was not starting work for another week I decided it would be a perfect time to go. 

The Rowe Sanctuary is an Audubon sanctuary located in central Nebraska. It consists of 1900 acres of river channel, wet meadows and agricultural land along the Platte River. It is named for Lillian Annette Rowe who financed teh initial purchase of 782 acres back in 1974 to help protect the habitat for migrating cranes.

 It is necessary to protect this part of the Platte River because it is the main resting spot for cranes migrating back north across the central flyway. Each year approximately 600,000 or more cranes stop at the Platte between mid February and mid April. This includes about 80% of the worlds population of lesser sandhill cranes. It also includes a good number of greater sandhill cranes and many other birds. The weekend I was there we saw a pair of endangered whooping cranes mixed in with the sandhills.

The reason why they stop at this location is because the Platte is a shallow river with many sandbars. During the day the cranes venture through the bordering fields eating any left over grains. Since cranes do not have feet that allow them to perch in trees they spend the night standing in the shallow water of the Platte. The shallow waters act as an alarm to let them know if an terrestrial predators may be around. Each morning the cranes rise up from the river giving visitors a spectacular show only to return each night for an encore.

Sunset Over the Platte

I would like to thank everyone who has come here this week to help us celebrate the 7th year anniversary of the ecobirder blog. Although life has limited the amount of time that I have to post I plan on continuing the blog for a long time to come. I took this photo of the sun setting on the Platte River in Nebraska a few weeks ago before I started my new job.

Sandhill Cranes at Dusk

In the fall Crex Meadows becomes a staging grounds for hundreds of sandhill cranes gathering to fly south for the winter. During the day they visit the farm fields, some of which are a part of Crex and others are in the surrounding area. They eat left over grains and insects building up their energy reserves for the long upcoming flight south. At night they stand in the shallow lakes and pools of Crex. The waters act as protection and alarm against ground based predators that might try and sneak up on the birds in the dark. The treat for us humans is in the morning and night when the cranes are flying out or returning. In this shot the sun had just sunk below the horizon. Birds were still coming in providing me with wonderful silhouette shots against the blaze orange sky. 

Great Egret

Snow Geese at Dawn

Fog Over Hayden Valley

Majestic Monarch

Pelicans Dotting the Sky

Sunset

Happy Independence Day

For all of my friends living in the United States.

Another Yellowstone View

Mammoth Hot Springs

Big Sky Country

Yellowstone Sky

Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park

It Looks Like Summer is Just Around the Corner

This has been one crazy May. It has snowed more then once this month here including a breif shower of snow/hail on last Saturday. I started that morning out wearing gloves because the overnight temps were down to freezing. Then by Tuesday we were flirting with our first 90 degree day. Nothing like a 50 degree swing over a few days. Hopefully the warm temps are here to stay because Summer is not far off.