Thousands of sandhill cranes flocking to Idaho in great migration south
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HAMER — The sound of hundreds of greater sandhill cranes gleaning a harvested field of corn means that fall has officially arrived. I arrived before daylight last Monday morning as I could hear flock after flock fly in from the north to drop into a field just south of Camas National Refuge Area. When it got light enough for me to see, there were close to a thousand of the large birds in a plowed corn field filling their bellies with the tasty morsels.
As it got lighter, I watched as the cranes came in very high, before circling and dropping into the field. It appeared that they had been flying a long time, maybe all night and were eager to get some food in their bellies. They had flown over Camas, but there is very little water available for them to stop for a drink, so after eating for about half an hour or about 45 minutes they took off for Mud Lake or Market Lake for a drink.
Most of the cranes that nest locally have already staged at Camas National Wildlife Refuge, Gray’s Lake or Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge; have migrated through Utah and Nevada and are already in Southern California. There they will winter until returning to Idaho to nest next spring.
Genetic studies indicate that the cranes migrating this week spent the summer in Siberia, Russia or the western part of Alaska. They follow the Rocky Mountain Flyway through Canada, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico to winter in northern Mexico. They will fly up to 400 miles per day to arrive at a “fueling area” for a few days and build up their reserves to continue their trek south to their wintering area. They migrate in family groups in a larger loose flock of up to several thousand birds.
Even though it looks like a lot of sandhill cranes migrating through our area, it is just a drop in the bucket of the total migration south. It is estimated that 80% of all cranes migrate through a 75-mile stretch along the Platte River in Nebraska. It is estimated that over half a million stage in that area on their way south in the fall, and in the spring on their way north. That is where the sandhill cranes got their name because they stage on Nebraska’s sandhill area of the American Great Plains. From there, they will get into scattered groups in flocks from 5,000 to 10,000 birds to migrate. Most of these birds nest in northern Canada, but mix with other smaller migrations in the southwestern state and northern Mexico.
There are three subspecies of sandhill cranes — the lesser, the greater and the Canadian. Several years ago in the spring, I got pictures of a pair of lessers at Market Lake with a flock of greaters, but most of the ones here are the greater sandhill cranes.
This week, while discussing them with a friend, he asked if I knew how big they were. I knew that they stood about four feet high. When I researched their size, they usually weigh between eight to 11 pounds — not much for as big as they look.
Most years, these migrants spend a lot of time on Camas, but this year there is very little water in the ponds and the agriculture lands are mostly planted in hay — leaving very little food and water for them.
With not much water at Market Lake, Mud Lake has become a staging area for some of these migrating flocks. I visited with a well-driller that is in the process of drilling three new wells on Camas to get water where it is needed.
Flocks of cranes should continue into November, as the snow has not forced them out of Canada yet. Usually, I will also see flocks of snow geese, tundra and trumpeter swans, but I have not seen any high-flying flocks of them either. It looks like we will have those to enjoy a little later this fall and early winter.
A reminder for travelers; about the same time these birds migrate, the big game animals also start migrating from the mountains — be careful that your vehicle is not harvested by one of them!!! Have a great week; it is predicted to get warm again in about a week!
