Schiess: Sandhill cranes heading south

As I was hunting last week the sound was distinct and unmistakable – sandhill cranes in flight heading south. Three flocks of over forty in each flew over in their perfect “V” formation. While hiking across Camas National Wildlife Refuge small flocks were flying in from the north – joining the 150 to 200 cranes already in the wheat and alfalfa fields.

One of the tell-tale signs of fall is the call of the Greater Sandhill cranes as they head south. Summer and nesting done, they migrate where some of us would love to go – the warmer temperatures to the south of us. They are the true snowbirds.

During nesting and while raising their young, pairs of sandhill cranes are very territorial, driving off all intruders including other cranes. This behavior ends in early fall when the young, called colts, are raised. The family becomes more social, feeding together with other families, roosting in small groups and then staging together in large flocks. At times you can hear them circling so high that you cannot see them with the naked eye.

As they migrate south, they fly about 50 miles per hour. They leave their roosting area midmorning to use the air thermals activated by warming of the atmosphere. Cranes will often sail for prolonged periods of time as they use these air currents, sometimes covering 500 miles in a day.

My first memory of these majestic birds was when I was about 10 years old helping shock grain in Teton Valley. Dad had read in the newspaper there were only a small number of breeding pairs left but we had more feeding in our grain fields than what the article said was surviving. Many of those were probably non-breeding as Sandhill cranes do not breed until they are three to seven years old.

Due to uncontrolled market hunting, destruction of wetlands and conflict with farmer’s crops, crane numbers dropped in the 1930s through the 1950s. Their recovery has been a successful one; one that allows limited hunting of them now in Idaho and other states.

There are only two crane species native to the United States: the sandhill and the Whooping Crane. Of the sandhill cranes there are six subspecies with three of these being non-migratory.

It is estimated 80 percent of Greater Sandhill cranes use a 75-mile area along the Platte River in Nebraska during their spring and fall migrations. The Upper Snake River Valley contains a substantial population with the Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge containing most of them.

With much of the farmland and wetlands being subdivided, threats to these large birds include the destruction of their nesting, staging and wintering areas. Management of these stately birds is critical in their survival. National wildlife refuges like the local Camas Creek and Grays Lake supply nesting and staging grounds for them. Managers of the Camas NWR plant wheat in the spring and do not harvest it as it is left for the benefit of the migrating fall and spring birds.

As I watched the flocks of Greater Sandhill Cranes feeding and leaving, I know they will be back in the spring. I am thrilled with the blessing of living where we share a few months with them each year.