sticks for legs, Rocky Mountain Sandhill Cranes stop in on their way south for winter, December 14, 2008, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
The cranes are back. I don’t have my glasses on so at first I think they’re dogs. Big hump-backed dogs sitting in the middle of the field. Then I see their legs. Long spindly legs that don’t look like they could possibly support such big bodies.
This time there are six cranes. They seem to come in even numbers. Jim says they mate for life. Apparently they do, although if one of the pair dies, the survivor will find another mate. That’s only fair.
For the past 16 years, Sandhill Cranes and other migratory birds have been a part of our lives. Our town is on their migration path, next to the Rio Grande bosque just north of Albuquerque. We see cranes in fields that grew corn in the summer, and we sneak up on large groups of the birds during our fall walks along the river.
We’ve come to cherish their throaty prehistoric calls as they fly overhead on the way north or south, depending on the season. (And prehistoric they are; a ten-million-year-old crane fossil found in Nebraska had a bone structure identical to the modern Sandhill Crane.)
About two-and-a-half hours south of here is the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, which is a fall and winter migration spot for one of the largest concentrations of Sandhill Cranes in the world. We went there when Dee was young enough to ride in a trailer hitched to the back of Jim’s bike. We bicycled all around the refuge, but we were in the off season and didn’t spot many cranes.
It’s almost the end of crane’s migration through this particular part of the Rio Grande Valley, at least for this year. Monday we had snow, and this week rain and threats of more snow. Soon it will be too cold for these skinny-legged birds and they’ll move on to southern New Mexico and Texas and northern Mexico.
I like to think the group of cranes from today includes the same four that were here this past weekend. That not only do they mate for life, but that they come back to the same places—even our field—again and again.
I suppose they do.
autumn: sticks for legs
then the first snowfall arrives
winter: sticks for arms
Resources on Sandhill Cranes
- To hear the haunting call of the Sandhill Cranes and hear more about their magical southern New Mexico gathering and mating spot, listen to this 2005 NPR report on Bosque del Apache
- To hear the Sandhill Cranes and see a beautiful slide show, check out this report from the Denver Rocky Mountain News
- US Geological Survey on Cranes
- City of Albuquerque’s website on Sandhill Cranes (including interesting facts)
- National Geographic crane center (including cranecam and migration map)
Ybonesy – Where we live in British Columbia, in my little municipality is a polder where Sandhill Cranes nest and rear their young each late spring and summer.
Their habitat is threatened by agriculture – of blueberry and cranberry farming, by pollution and by converting some of that land to golf courses. It is a pity to realize that such an old species is increasingly stressed by human encroachments. G
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That is so sad, G. A golf course!? I’m not familiar with blueberry and cranberry farming, but I imagine that natural areas are cleared of foliage, which is the problem for cranes. Is that what happens?
The US Geological Survey link in the post has the most information of all the links, I think, about the status of the Sandhill Crane in terms of conservation and endangerment. There are two species that are critically threatened, although not the Rocky Mountain Sandhill Cranes.
The man who we bought this property from was the son of a famous conservationist photographer. I think that family tradition of conservation led the previous owner of our place to put a conservation easement on this land (which I want to write about some day). It prevents the land from being broken up and developed with houses. He also built a small pond. The land qualified for a conservation easement in part because of the wildlife on the land.
Much of the municipality where we live was at one time large fields and orchards. It was the perfect kind of farming community for Sandhill Cranes, because the birds arrived in spring, before the planting, and then they came again in late fall, after the harvest. I think the City of Albuquerque link talks about how the birds clear the seeds and residue from the land, which is beneficial to farmers who want to rotate crops. That way there are less volunteers from former crops popping up in new crops. (Also, we have a couple of huge corn fields, including one that is made into an annual corn maze. Perfect for the cranes.)
But most of those fields and orchards have been divided into lots and developed. Big houses everywhere now. Still, the cranes manage to find the few remaining fields, plus they especially flock to the river.
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There are a lot of sandhill cranes in Wisconsin. Cranes are big in Wisconsin for some reason. Only 40 miles from Madison, there is the home of the International Crane Foundation – the only place in the world that actually has all 14 (I think 14) cranes species in the world. They do huge amounts of study on preserving the habitats of the cranes, on reproduction issues with pesticides, etc., on almost any topic you would associate with trying to preserve the crane species. They even do the crane training behind airplanes – featured in a movie, but I’m horrible with movie titles so I’m not sure the title. But here’s a link for the place – it’s quite small, but also quite extraordinary.
http://www.savingcranes.org/
When we visited the actual sandhills in Nebraska this past October, there were thousands of cranes. I loved the sandhills, had never seen an area quite like that before, and so I did a Google search. Seems there are only 2 sandhill regions in the world – Nebraska’s which is one of the largest ecological niches never to have been disturbed by farming, etc. (shhh! don’t tell anyone!) and the Carolinas’ sandhills which have essentially been destroyed by man’s industry, including – you guessed it – the proliferation of golf courses!!!
I could go on and on, but I’ll get off my band wagon before I get started.
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Great link, Bo! It has a Field Guide section, and under the different types of cranes, like Sandhill Crane, it provides facts, figures, and audio recordings of different types of calls. Thanks!
Is the Nebraska Sandhills region protected, do you know?
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A third of Nebraska is made up of the sandhills, and of that I think about 85% of it is still intact. A huge percentage of the entire Sandhill Crane population can be found there, mostly along the Platte River, during migration times of the year – I think maybe 80% of the worldwide population.
And yes, there are many protected regions in the region now – at least 4 established Wilderness areas, National Forests, and the Platte River, I’m pretty certain, is designated as a Wild and Scenic Riverway by the National Park Service. I’m not sure how long of a stretch of the river is protected, but it appears that great effort has been made to keep the area ecologically intact.
I think it helps that it is quite isolated. Cattle grazing is about the only damage done to any part of that system.
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ybonesy, wonderful post! My beloved Sandhill Cranes! And I do love them. It’s really great to see this photograph and imagine these ancient birds, as old as dinosaurs, right in your backyard.
Bo, I saw the cranes by the Platte River in Nebraska, too, and it was like nothing else I’ve ever seen. I just loved it. And I’d recommend it to everyone. If you aren’t already in love with all the great authors from Nebraska (Willa Cather being one of them — click on the Nebraska link in ybonesy’s post to read more), you will LOVE Nebraska after experiencing the Sandhill Cranes.
Bo, we rented a blind one morning right by the Platte River, hid in the dark, and waited for the cranes to wake up and fly out to the fields in the sunrise. It was one of the most amazing experiences. Their ancient calls are something!
I hope to take Liz to see them someday. I also want to visit Willa Cather’s home there. I smell a roadtrip coming on. It’s been a little while. 8)
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I’m trying to figure out if the Sandhill Cranes that go to the Platte River in spring are the same ones that end up at Bosque del Apache in winter, but I don’t think so. I’ve been looking at migration maps, including the one in the Geologic Survey, and from what I can tell, the Rio Grande valley is on the migration path for the Rocky Mountain Sandhill Crane, which come via a path along the San Luis Valley in Colorado. But I’m not sure that these are *not* the same ones, just that it looks like the Platte Valley cranes might be of a different sub-species (Prairie and/or others).
It does look like, however, some of those Platte Valley Sandhill Cranes end up in southeastern NM, not Bosque del Apache, but a different little spot. If I’m reading the maps right, that is.
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Hey, QM, I was hoping you’d chime in about your Platte River experience. Where did Willa Cather live relative to the Platte River? (BTW, I’m not sure the Willa Cather link on that post is still live. I tried it but got a strange message.) I’m imagining her in that isolated land, writing away.
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And isn’t it amazing, the links between special places. You know, in my Albuquerque high school we all read Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archibishop, not only because it was great literature, but also because it was set in NM. And, Teri, who shared with me the latest Natalie Goldberg silent retreat/workshop reading list, let me know that Death Comes for the Archibishop was on the list.
I want to re-read the book. But isn’t it also so cool how connected things are?
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ybonesy, yeah, the Nebraska cranes I have read about end up in southeastern NM and Texas. I wonder if they are the same cranes and you are seeing, the ones that are just “passing through.” I know Bo is right, that there is also a separate migration pattern that goes down through Wisconsin and ends up somewhere South, around Baltimore and then another that ends up in Florida. The migration patterns are so amazing. I used to be really into them and studied all the maps and routes. I often went to Duluth, Minnesota, too, to Hawk Ridge when the raptors were migrating through that area. Hawk Ridge is a major raptor migratory path.
They migrate, too, because of the light changes and not temperature as we humans might tend to do. 8) I forgot to mention to Bo, too, that we actually saw a Whooping Crane when we were watching the Sandhill Crane migration through Nebraska. It was a rare sight. I have a bunch of C-42 negative prints somewhere with all the crane photographs and negatives. Archived in a box somewhere in the studio. Can’t wait to have time to go through all that and catalogue it.
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ybonesy, Willa Cather, I think, was born in Virginia but lived most of her late childhood, early adulthood, in Red Cloud, Nebraska. I’ll have to go back to that Valentine post and check out the links to make sure they still work. I wrote that so long ago now when I was doing all those road trips through Nebraska on the way to Taos. Yes, Teri did say they read Death Comes for the Archibishop. I think I picked that up and bought it in the Mabel Dodge little store when I was there one year and read it. But it’s been a while. I want to read it again.
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I can’t wait to see those photos, QM. I bet they are spectacular. When you come to NM, you will have to time your visit so you’re here in November and can go to the Bosque del Apache. The NPR link and the Denver Rocky Mountain News link will provide special incentive for you to make the trip at that time. Early December is good, too.
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Yeah, I’d love to see the Bosque del Apache. I’ll check out your links. BTW, the migration through Nebraska peaks in March/April — that must be the migration from South back to North for roosting. We stopped by Rowe Sanctuary that year and got some leads to viewing places. Bo, if you saw them in October, that must have been their migration from North to South, right? Did you plan it or just happen on the sandhills?
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I’m glad so glad I came over here! What a beautiful site!
And thank you for sharing this loving tribute to these fabulous birds. I do believe Sandhill families stick to a migration pattern and route, so these are probably your same ‘hump back dogs’. Wouldn’t it be fun if ‘our’ Sandhills were also ‘your’ Sandhills?
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Thanks for stopping by, Esmaa, and thanks for the kind words. I bet our cranes are the same! 8)
(Esmaa wrote a post on Sandhill Cranes earlier this week, which came up on WP’s post auto-generator. I checked out her post and saw that she was in Colorado.)
When I read Bo’s comment about the Sand Hills of Nebraska and the Carolina’s, I thought about the Great Sand Dunes of the San Luis Valley in Colorado and wondered if the Sandhill Cranes stopped at those sandhills. And then I did a quick google search and found mention of the book The San Luis Valley: Sand Dunes and Sandhill Cranes (LINK).
One could dedicate one’s life to this amazing bird and probably end up in the most beautiful areas of the U.S. and beyond.
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QM – we were on our way West, I always try to get us off the interstates for at least part of everyday. Se we went exploring the sandhills in Nebraska. What a wonderful find.
Unfortunately that day’s photographs are lost in my broken hard drive which I have to send to the manufacturer for repair. Royal pain! I’m not very good about following up on those things.
And the sandhill cranes were at the Platte, soon to be heading south. I’ll have to check out the migratory paths.
We have another crane hot spot in Necedah, an hour north of Madison, a wildlife refuge – there I have seen the Whoopers. Now that is a handsome bird! The town even has a Crane Fest every October. Mr. Bo loves it ’cause they brew their own annual Whooper Brew. 🙂
The Wildlife Refuge has an artist-in-residency program. I’m toying with the idea of applying. It would be 2 weeks, live-in – photography, writing, a couple of workshops I’d give. Maybe do pinhole cameras – I’ve always thought it would be neat to teach kids about pinholes. Wonder what age-appropriate that would be?
Hey — I hear the plows. I think we had about 14 inches of wet snow last night and today. I can finally get out of the driveway now. Hurrah!!!
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Living here in the northeastern part of of the country, I know mostly about herons. We used to be visited every year by by a great blue heron, who made our pond a favorite spot to stop by. But,at our camp on the river, white herons are a very common sight. At dusk, they retreat to one of the islands that are not populated by humans. Most of them nest for the night, in one huge tree & it is a wonderful sight to behold! Great post yb. D
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Bo, the artist-in-residency program sounds fabulous. Two weeks? Can you imagine? I really encourage you to apply.
BTW, mimbresman (a friend who comments now and then) teaches science, I think to h.s. and middle, and he has taught pinhole photography. I would think it might be appropriate for kids as young as about 12. Younger in a 1:1 setting, although it might be that MM gave Dee her first pinhole photo set when she was quite young, now that I think about it.
diddy, wow, a great blue heron. Those are rare, aren’t they? We saw some big white birds that resembled cranes here early in the fall, late summer really. We saw them as we were leaving down the road. I don’t think we ever looked them up, but we thought they might be a white heron or type of crane.
I imagine it would take a pretty strong tree to hold all those big birds. I worry sometimes about the Ponderosa where our turkeys roost. That’s a lot of weight.
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It’s a warm morning, strong sun, and the cranes are back. Up to a little over a dozen at one point. They were here yesterday, too. Now we’re starting to wonder if the coyotes will come back. We hope not.
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Bo, you should do the Necedah Wildlife Refuge artist-in-residence program. I can totally see that fitting for you. And teaching pinhole photography, what better! And now I want to go there to see the cranes. I hope you apply for it.
We got whopped with a different storm here over the last few days. It’s -6 where I am, 30 below wind chill. But the snow has stopped coming down. Still haven’t shoveled the drive. I heard that the Milwaukee airport was shut down for a while last week. Quite the storm!
ybonesy, we do have quite a few Great Blue Herons here and also in Florida there are quite a few. Beautiful birds. I’m glad the cranes are back in your yard. Keep us posted.
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Yb, the Great Blue Herons are also fairly common in our area. We see many at our camp on the river. They are very prehistoric looking. But, to have one visit our pond year after year was just such a special treat. D
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I love the first picture! The colors and the birds are just so peaceful looking.
As for the second picture…nah, you can keep it. We’ve had snow for eight days here!
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