Sandhill Cranes - near Kearney, Nebraska - 3.13-15.2010

I can't quite decide how to do this post. Normally I only include one to three pictures of a particular bird in a post, but after spending 3 full days observing the Sandhill Cranes (not to mention the 3 or 4 days we spent last year camping near them), I have gained a special love for them.

It is amazing to watch their habits and realize that they have been flying through the same area for at least thousands, if not millions, of years. Ninety percent of the world's Sandhill Cranes fly through about a 50 mile stretch of the Platte River in Central Nebraska between Valentine's Day and Tax Day each year, an estimated 450,000 birds annually. They come from the South including New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, and stop here for about 4 weeks to eat up and gain energy to fly on to Canada and even over the North Pole into Siberia where they nest.

Nebraska provides a safe-haven for them as the only state where they are not hunted. The Cranes, however, are still wary of humans since they have just come from areas where they are hunted. Thus, they stay far from roads and they will take off if you leave your car. If, however, you stay in the car and they aren't too close to the road before you stop they usually stay in place. There is an amazing love between these birds and Nebraskans, as well as people from all over the country who come to experience this miraculous event.

They spend their days eating the plentiful left-over corn and grain in the fields on each side of the Platte, and their nights on the Platte where they roost, drink water, and supplement their corn-fed diet with crustaceans.

Last year Jesse and I camped within a hundred or so feet from them as they ate in the fields, but we didn't get to see them on the river. We were using a broken point-and-shoot camera at the time as well, so I was anxious to get some shots of them where I could actually see what was in the picture when I was done.

For all of these reasons, I am including many of my favorite pictures. I took over 1500 pictures in 3 days, so this really is a select few. I used 2 lenses for all of the Crane shots; a 500 for all of the field shots, and a 300 with a 1.4x teleconverter for the water shots, just to give you an idea how close we got.

On Saturday, March 13, Jesse drove Dad Higgins and I around while we balanced our cameras on the window and took pictures of the cranes in the field. The lighting was poor, but we got some decent shots.

On Sunday night, we went down to the Platte hoping to see them on the river. We were near a public-viewing deck, and while it was an amazing spectacle to watch all of the Cranes come into the river for the night, none landed within sight. As we drove away after dark, we saw them on another branch of the Platte, I hurriedly set up a tripod, and took this photo. We could barely make out their silhouettes with binoculars in the darkness, so it really is a miracle that this picture turned out as well as it did. This was about an hour after sunset. Thank heaven for a tripod! I was very pleased.

We got up early the next morning and returned to the same place, but they had moved upriver during the night. We witnessed an amazing spectacle as they all lifted off the river and broke into song at the same moment just as the first light appeared through the thick clouds that surrounded us our entire trip. It is an indescribable experience to see tens of thousands of birds wakening and taking flight in this way.

We then drove around and took some more pictures of them in the fields due to slightly better lighting. I really like how these pictures turned out.

They look very much like Mary Poppins holding her umbrella as they land. They put their "flaps" down, drop their landing gear (legs) straight down, and if there is little wind, they just slowing drift straight down. I love watching it!

We had planned to leave for Lincoln that morning, but after the experiences of the previous night and that morning, we signed up spots in a blind right on the Platte River through Rowe Santuary, just a couple of miles west from where we had tried viewing them. This was the most amazing experience of the whole trip. So, Monday evening we arrived at the Sanctuary about an hour before sunset and were escorted to the blind (obviously - no flash is allowed which explains why the pictures of Jesse and Dad Higgins are not great - but I still wanted to document what the blind was like).

A mating pair of Cranes landed on the sandbar early on providing some great picture-taking opportunities.

While I thoroughly enjoyed photographing this spectacle from so close, my favorite moment was when the largest group of birds all came and landed on the water at the same moment. It was a purely spiritual experience. No other Cranes landed that close, but two large groups landed to the east and west of us.

The next morning, we went back to our first viewing location and just sat back and watched again as the Cranes all took flight in a single moment. If you ever get a chance to view this miracle, I highly recommend it!