Saturday, March 25, 2006
This morning I watched and listened as tens of thousands of sandhill cranes lifted off their roost along a stretch of Nebraska's Platte River. When their numbers peak in about a week, more than 500,000 cranes will stage along an 80-mile stretch of the Platte.
It is truly one of the most magnificent wildlife spectacles on the planet, and everyone should experience it at least once in their lifetime.
The chatter begins before first light and builds as the skyline brightens. Then silhouettes of the cranes, thousands of them in wave after wave, come into view as they fan out across the countryside. Most stay within five miles of the river.
The show lasts more than two hours each morning this time of year At dusk, the cranes return to the river, and night falls before the birds finally settle in and quiet down. They prefer to roost in shallow water about six inches deep. If the river freezes, they move to adjacent fields and huddle together to conserve body heat.
Sandhill cranes are large gray wading birds, almost as tall as great blue herons. They are distinguished by their red crowns and white cheeks. They fly with their necks fully extended, unlike herons, which in flight pull their necks back into an "s" shape.
What's happening
The birds I've been watching are on the move. They spent the winter in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico and began arriving along the Platte River in February. Each crane spends about 29 days along the Platte preparing for the final journey north to nest in the marshes of Canada and Alaska.
The cranes consume nearly 1,600 tons of unharvested corn stubble during their stay. In return, they attract tourists at a most inhospitable time of year. Birders from all around the country and even the world travel to Nebraska from late February through early April to experience this phenomenal gathering of cranes.
Though sandhill cranes are the main attraction, birders travel to Nebraska in March to see other birds as well. Literally millions of ducks and geese stop along the Platte River on their journey north, too.
Twenty-three years ago I made the trip myself; it's an experience I'll never forget. One evening as I sat in a blind, I watched and listened for more than an hour as the cranes returned from their feeding grounds. The throaty, trumpet-like call of tens of thousands of birds made it hard to hear even my own thoughts. And as dusk gave way to total darkness, I could still hear birds settling in on the river.
Check on the Internet
This morning's events unfolded as I sat at my desk writing this column. Natural spectacles that heretofore could only be imagined through the filter of another's description can now be experienced live via cameras (web cams) that transmit images over the internet. It's an amazing tool for teachers, parents who home school their children, and curious naturalists of all ages. Here's the web address: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/cranecam/cam.html.
If you don't have internet access at home, visit a local library. The best times to catch the show are the hours around sunrise and sunset. The cameras will operate through April 10. The National Geographic Society deserves a big thank you for providing this service.
Here are sites
Web cams are a great way to visit places and observe wildlife behaviors that might otherwise be impossible. Here are a few other sites to visit. But first, a word of warning: web searches for "live web cams" will yield a plethora of pornographic web sites. Include the names of specific animals when searching for web cams.
www.paconserve.org/rc/pittvideo.html -- monitors two peregrine falcon nests in Pittsburgh
www.birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/nestboxcam/ -- shows active barn owl, eastern bluebird, and osprey nests
http://wdfw.wa.gov/wildwatch/eaglecam/index.html -- see bald eagle, great blue heron and purple martin nests
www.wap.atfreeweb.com/flyingsquirrels/fdrpics/01.html -- watch the antics of flying squirrels at a feeder in a Maryland back yard.
www.learner.org/jnorth/spring2005/index.html -- tracks the migration of monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, gray whales, and whooping cranes.
XSend questions and comments to Dr. Scott Shalaway, R.D. 5, Cameron, W.Va. 26033 or via e-mail to sshalaway@aol.com.