Sandhill cranes are displaying up in Nebraska in staggering numbers in 2024. Bethany Ostrom, a wildlife biologist, reported on February 24, 2024, that the annual Crane Trust chook rely census was revealing about 5 occasions the typical inhabitants. The excited scientist wrote at a Crane Belief weblog:
One other report week! On February 24, 2024, we estimated 122,700 + 9,100 sandhill cranes between Chapman and Overton, Nebraska … On common, this time of 12 months [week 2 of the annual count], we see round 27,000 cranes.
Ostrom had begun writing concerning the large enhance in Sandhill crane numbers earlier in February. On February 14, she’d reported discovering extra cranes at first of the annual chook than the excited scientist had ever seen:
On February 14, 2024, we estimated 38,000 ± 6,800 sandhill cranes between Chapman and Overton, Nebraska. That is the very best rely on report in the course of the first week of our aerial surveys.
The yearly bird-count – begun in 1998 – is performed on an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River. US Fish and Wildlife, which has performed its personal annual crane surveys within the Central Platte River Valley since 1979, estimates a median of greater than 500,000 of the birds flip up every spring between February and April.
The skilled birdwatchers additionally noticed a bunch of different transient avians round Valentine’s Day this 12 months:
We additionally estimated round 2,000 darkish geese, 19 trumpeter swans and 18 bald eagles. Our darkish geese estimate was very low in comparison with previous years. (Darkish geese embody Canada, Brant and different goose species.) Snow geese had been very considerable within the space, however we don’t embody them in our estimates.
Want to see the cranes? The Crane Trust offers guided tours of sandhill crane nesting areas.
Platte River is just a stop-over for cranes
Nebraska’s largest river is the world’s hottest gathering spot for sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis). The large flocks of birds that flip up there every year are grouping up for a journey north when the climate grows heat sufficient. Smithsonian Magazine described the start of their annual odyssey:
Every spring, a whole lot of hundreds of the tall, long-legged birds start making their journey north to breeding grounds in Alaska, Canada and japanese Siberia. Out of all of the world’s sandhill cranes, 80 p.c use Nebraska’s Platte River as a pit cease, the place they fatten up on corn kernels left over from the earlier fall’s harvest.
The Crane Belief’s Ostrom thinks early heat climate this 12 months is behind the report crane counts:
Crane Belief analysis from 2019 suggests the possible reason behind this 12 months’s copious quantity of early arrivals is the upper common winter temperatures. The winter of 2021-2022 was additionally a reasonably gentle winter and we had round 27,000 cranes on Valentine’s Day that 12 months. A median first week rely is round 6,000-8,000 cranes.
Massive numbers of cranes this early within the migration may imply the inhabitants peaks early and strikes on. Or perhaps not, because the birds are “not desirous to migrate in lower than excellent climate.” In 2022, the variety of cranes was spectacular early, however the peak in inhabitants got here late. The cranes apparently go whichever manner the wind blows:
For instance, in 2022 we had a powerful first rely however we didn’t see peak numbers till March twenty first due to chilly fronts that got here by way of the area. Cranes use the climate to their benefit, usually driving the wake of winter, leaving spring behind them.
Sandhill cranes are a part of an historical lineage
Smithsonian Journal says cranes have been hanging across the US Midwest since earlier than the nation was even a twinkle within the Founding Fathers’ eyes:
Archaeologists at Ashfall Fossil Beds in northeast Nebraska unearthed the fossilized stays of a crowned crane – a detailed relative of the sandhill crane – that’s estimated to be roughly 10 million years previous. The oldest sandhill crane fossil, discovered within the Macasphalt Shell Pit in Florida, is roughly 2.5 million years previous.
Sadly, the wetlands that the sandhill cranes rely upon are vanishing, the Crane Belief reports:
Moist meadows adjoining the Platte River present vital migratory, feeding, and nesting habitats for greater than 150 species of birds and different wildlife in central Nebraska. Most moist meadows of the Platte River Valley have been drained and/or transformed to cropland and different makes use of during the last a number of many years. Because of this, moist meadows at the moment are uncommon alongside the Platte River relative to their historic distribution.
Much more sadly, analysis printed final 12 months in Nature reveals the lack of wetlands across the globe is a part of a centuries-long development:
We estimate that 3.4 million sq. kilometers (1.3 million sq. miles) of inland wetlands have been misplaced since 1700, primarily for conversion to croplands. This internet lack of 21 p.c of world wetland space is decrease than that advised beforehand by extrapolations of information disproportionately from high-loss areas. Wetland loss has been concentrated in Europe, the USA and China, and quickly expanded in the course of the mid-twentieth century.
The continued lack of migratory chook habitat is why the annual sandhill crane rely is important work:
These ongoing roost surveys are an vital part of the Crane Belief’s monitoring program, enabling the belief and different conservation companions to raised assess and perceive the consequences of various habitat administration practices on cranes at this important stage of their annual migration. The surveys proceed into mid-April when most cranes can have left the river to proceed their migration to breeding grounds within the north.
Backside line: Sandhill cranes are arriving in report numbers throughout their annual spring migration within the U.S. Midwest.
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