Fly away home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/05/2015 (3890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nebraska’s Platte River Valley served as a pathway for several hundred thousand pioneers who, during the mid-19th century, made the long trek west in search of a new life. The valley’s 500-kilometre-long river, frequently referred to as the Great Platte River Road, also guided fortune-seekers as they travelled to the California gold fields, Mormons who sought the “promised land” and the Pony Express during its abbreviated 18-month life.

Although the Platte River Valley no longer serves as a major transportation highway, a 112-kilometre stretch continues to offer a staging area and temporary refuge to some of the Earth’s most beautiful creatures.

 

The flyway

Twice each year, hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes choose the Platte River Valley as a resting place and staging area during their migrations between the southern United States and Mexico, and the northern U.S., Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. The cranes fly 480 to 800 kilometres per day, depending upon the wind, during these pilgrimages that can range up to 16,000 kilometres.

The central flyway of the sandhill cranes is hourglass-shaped, with a 112-km stretch of Nebraska’s Platte River Valley as its choke point. A smaller flyway further east connects Florida with Michigan and northern Indiana. Smaller flyways exist to the west and along the West Coast, but it is Central Nebraska that draws the vast majority of sandhill cranes. Approximately half a million stop along the Platte River Valley twice each year to rest, feed, and, depending on individual status, find a mate before completing the journey: north to nesting grounds during spring, and south during fall to escape harsh winter weather. It is estimated more than 90 per cent of the mid-continent population of cranes channel their migration through Nebraska.

 

The sandhill cranes

Although several species of sandhill cranes populate North America, all of the birds are relatively large and have long, thin necks and legs. Feathers tend toward various shades of grey, often brushed with reddish streaks resulting from the cranes’ preening with brown or red mud. Foreheads are decked with bright red skin that makes them easy to identify. The birds range from 0.9 to 1.2 metres in height with giant wingspans used to power them over long distances. Their large wings and sleek bodies accentuate the beauty of the cranes in flight or when gliding in for a landing.

Unlike many humans, sandhill cranes mate for life, which can span 20 years and longer. Unattached adult cranes seek a mate during the spring migration. Their attempts to attract a mate often includes one of the most enjoyable sights for bird watchers: the dance. Sandhill cranes flap their wings, bow, pump their heads, and jump up and down during courting dances. Sandbars in the Platte often become a bird version of the disco-era Studio 54.

 

Female cranes typically lay two eggs, with only one of the nestlings generally surviving. The eggs take about a month to hatch. Young cranes (called colts) migrate with their parents until two years of age, when they often begin searching for their own mates. Some adolescent cranes don’t begin breeding for several years.

 

The Platte River Valley

During spring migrations, the cranes stop in this narrow section of the Platte River Valley and spend two to four weeks resting and feeding in the surrounding fields, mostly on corn that remains from the fall harvest. Between 80,000 to 100,000 cranes are in the valley at any one time from mid-February through early April. While sandhill cranes don’t fish, they do consume insects, berries, worms, and mice, but in Nebraska, corn is an easy-to-find meal and their major food source. This is the Cornhusker State, after all. The cranes add 20 per cent to their body weight during the Nebraska stopover.

Each morning near dawn, the cranes commence their daily search for food. They generally don’t have far to fly because the river is surrounded by cornfields. Departures are sometimes gradual, with small groups leaving together, and sometimes en masse. Regardless, it is quite a sight to witness hundreds or thousands of cranes taking flight together. Perhaps most memorable is the trilling and purring sound they make prior to lifting off. Upon leaving the blind where we watched the cranes, one person in our group said, “we will carry that sound with us forever.”

At dusk, the sight of thousands of returning cranes is simply breathtaking. Approaching in V-shaped formations or long, wavering columns, the cranes descend on the Platte like supersonic aircraft, landing with full flaps down. The birds are simply beautiful, both in-flight and on land.

 

Experiencing the migrating cranes

The best locations for viewing sandhill crane migrations are near the towns of Kearney and Grand Island, both of which are along Interstate 80 in south-central Nebraska. The Iain Nicholson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary about 25 minutes southeast of Kearney offers several group viewing blinds alongside the Platte River. Volunteer guides lead visitors to the blinds during darkness for morning viewings and before sunset for evening viewings. Good views are also available at Fort Kearny Recreation Area Hike-Bike Trail Bridge. Call (308) 468-5282 for reservations.

Farther east, a short distance off Interstate 80 Exit 305, the Crane Trust offers morning and evening guided tours to its private blinds and to a private footbridge. The blinds are enclosed and have large plastic windows for viewing while the bridge tour allows 360-degree viewing. Call (308) 382-1820 for reservations. Grand Island claims to have more cranes than Kearney, which bills itself as the “Sandhill Crane Capital of the World.” Both are excellent locations from which to view the crane migration. The cost of a tour (morning or evening) at both the Rowe Sanctuary and Crane Trust is US$25 per person.

We have viewed mountain goats in Glacier National Park, wolves in Yellowstone, alligators in the Everglades, watched a cougar run beside the lodge registration building in Big Bend National Park, and gone whale-watching in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Only the latter compares to the spectacle of Nebraska’s sandhill crane migration. It is indeed a memorable experience.

 

David and Kay Scott are authors of The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges (Globe Pequot). Visit them at valdosta.edu/dlscott/Scott