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Nebraska cranes

14 years ago

Just returned from Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska where I spent a night in a photo blind. For anyone who has never been there, I highly recommend it. The spectacle of many thousands of migrating sandhill cranes is not something to be missed, and I'm not aware of anywhere else you'd have the opportunity to actually spend the night in the midst of them. You can also do sunset or sunrise tours in their larger blinds, if you don't want to spend the night in a 4'x8' plywood box. I can't think of a better way to have spent my Easter eve/morning. I took along my Canon 1D Mk III and 500 with 1.4x, 40D and 100-400, and my G10.

It's really hard to capture the magnitude of the experience in photos, so check out this short YouTube video I took if you want to hear what it all sounds like.

We had a nice sunset on Saturday:

Group flying into the sun:

Suddenly there was a huge takeoff of thousands of cranes. Since it was getting dark, I had my camera already set for longer exposures and I think it worked well for this scene:

Early the next morning, this is before 6:00:

Here's the blind, right on the river bank:

--

Liz in MN

Check out my online photo gallery and live feedercam

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Comments (3)

donald lucius
14 years ago
i remember the times that we used to travel to eastern Colorado to visit relatives, we were lucky that a couple times it matched up with the migrations of the sandhill cranes thru eastern Colorado, the local tv and radio stations here used to announce the progress of the migration from south texas north across New Mexico into the San Luis valley where they stopped several days on their trip north. It was newsworthy in that a couple of whooping cranes were spotted with the Sandhill cranes and hundreds of people would drive over there ahead of time to camp for a couple days to see the thousands of cranes and hope to spot a Whooping crane.
I have not heard anything in recent years on the news but i know they still come thru.
prairie_love
14 years ago
I love the cranes. I think they sound like the flying monkeys from Wizard of Oz!

The video is great and these pictures are wonderful. I particularly like the first one with the beautiful colors and the one with so many taking flight. I agree, the long shutter worked great for that!

Thanks for sharing,
Ann
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I've been doing a lot of "research" on the sandhills because of a discussion group I'm leading this week,and find them so fascinating. I've found several sites with sound wavs and good grief,when you hear hundreds upon hundreds of them at once,it really is unreal. We have gaggles of Canada geese going by every day.regardless of the season. They are just flying back and forth to local ponds,don't really migrate like they used to,and sometimes get so close you can hear their wings flap. I love them.Hang in there George...spring will happen.
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We missed it on TV but can go see them anytime. Game and Oarks says they now estimate about 600,000 cranes in the area. Think there are that many bird watchers too. Went out to eat and the restaurants are reallu busy/.. Paer said people from England, Germany, Iceland, A large group from Switzerland and a scattering of other countries. Plus about every state. And that is just the people that are staying around here, a few miles east of here whe the Rowe Sanctuary for the cranes is there are hundreds more people from everywhere One of the men from Switzerland was interview and he said he and his wife will be out at the river every morning and sunset for a week. He also said he cried when the cranes took of in the morning and actually blotted out the rising sun. Didn't know why but was moved deeply.
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When I visited friends in AZ some winters back, I was amazed at the tens of thousands of Sandhills which always gathered in a huge dry lakebed nearby. I've never seen so many birds; EVER! Smaller groups would gather in the high desert (near Wilcox) right outside the home of my friends. Their music followed them downwards as they set up for their landings, covering acres at a time. The early mornings would bring an increasing volume of excitement as they readied for their take-offs and the days' feeding areas. As their calls became dimmer, I could see their flight patterns become the printed-out notes of their flying songs! Double whammy. Must've been the high desert air, or the trip to the little Benedictine Monastary we visited some miles down the road...... I'll never forget those comical, yet beautiful birds as long as I live.
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rachel_frome_ky
14 years ago
Wonderful Sandhill Crane sights, sounds, and such a gorgeous photo gallery, too!

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