Sandhill cranes: The best kick-boxing show you will ever see
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The dancing of the sandhill cranes appeared more like an MMA tournament instead of two big birds working on a courting relationship. Then I noticed that the mature couples of the small groups were doing the “normal crane dancing” while what appeared to be the youngsters, last year’s crop, were doing the fighting.
The yearlings would run or fly at each other then start kick-boxing with their feet as the flew as high at 20 feet while trying to rake each other with their feet or beat each other with their wings. In the early cold morning amidst the snow/rain mix, it did not appear they were exercising to get warm.
Three newly planted fields just east of Mud Lake held about 200 birds when I started watching them with another 60 dropping in Thursday morning. As small flocks from five to 17 would drop in, the fighters would join forces to attack the newbies. School rivalries at its best.
The major spring migration is in full swing, it is also the time when the yearling birds are kicked out by their parents. They have been protected and coddled by mom and dad, who are hooked up in a lifetime relationship, to get rid of the kids and time to get ready for a new addition or two. Raising a “colt” is always a full-time job for both parents.
The cranes migrating through Mud Lake and Southeastern Idaho belong to the Rocky Mountain Population and their spring migration brings in these later birds. During the winter they stay in New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico and they set up their summer homes in Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Montana. Comparative speaking, it is the smallest population of the migrating sandhill cranes while the huge migration takes most of the birds from the southern states to northern Canada and Alaska to nest.
The birds I have been watching this week are probably the cranes waiting for the snow to melt in the Island Park area so they can nest there. About two to three weeks ago at Camas National Wildlife Refuge and Market Lake, birders would often saw groups of three cranes flying in fast circles and performing aerial combats. This action was a couple trying to get rid of last year’s kids. They appear to have been successful as those couples are now nesting without the third wheel.
Sandhill cranes do not mature until they are three or four years old so after the parents kick them out to raise a new family, the kids have several years to turn their fighting into dancing. This gives them time to hone their skills to attract a lifetime mate.
I ran out to Mud Lake again Friday morning and once again the Sandhill cranes were still flying in with the fighting continuing. One flock of about 50 birds dropped in from a very high altitude to build the flocks to almost 300 birds. There were also several hundred snow geese on the lake with a lot of other waterfowl.
If you know where there is a Great-horned owl nest, watch it closely from a distance and you will see the baby owlets have now hatched. They will grow rapidly and will soon be so big that mom will be pushed out of the nest. The Burrowing owls are a little slow coming in as I have only seen one of them and it did not take over the burrow where I saw it.
Good luck in the great outdoors. Ticks are now out in full force on the few warm days that we have had and if you go out where there are rattlesnakes, they too have been seen sunning themselves.
