March 3, 2016 - Crane Migration

I have had a confirmed “hearing” (not a sighting) of a red-winged black bird in the area. For me that means spring has (almost) officially arrived. This past weekend I drove out to Kearney, Nebraska for my annual pilgrimage to see the sandhill crane migration. A couple of days before I left, using aerial survey, the number of cranes estimated to be in the area was 80,000. We drove out I-80 for about 10 hours (strictly observing the speed limit) and arrived at a place where we always saw cranes and there were none. There were none in the air flying over the Interstate as we drove from Doniphan towards Kearney. We went down to the Rowe Audubon Sanctuary and saw flocks of red-winged black birds, and meadowlarks were leaping up and out of the ditches as the dust from the gravel roads rooster-tailed behind us. No cranes there either. Then suddenly there were cranes. There were cranes everywhere; cranes to the right of us; cranes to the left of us; cranes above us. All were making a huge, joyful sound. All were congregated in a couple of acres, standing almost in ranks that stretched back towards the horizon. It really is hard to describe the sight or the feeling of awe this spectacle inspires. Native Nebraskans and tourists alike were pulling their cars to the side of the road to watch. This is an annual event that has been going on for hundreds of years here and millennia in other places– in fact cranes lived during the late Miocene epoch (between 11.6 million to 5.3 million years ago)so they’ve been having these annual gatherings of families, clans, and tribes for a very long time. This is a sight you should try to see at least once in your life time. I’m an over achiever, so I’ve been doing this annually since the early 1990s. It never gets old, even though it is very ancient. While I was gone, enjoying the balmy, 70-degree weather in Nebraska, spring started to arrive in Wisconsin and so did the spring book titles, some of which you will see listed below. Enjoy!