The first sandhill cranes of the season have arrived in eastern Idaho
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On Monday, I saw the first greater sandhill cranes of the year, 16 of them in the Burton area of Madison County. They dropped in along with a few Tundra swans and a lot of trumpeter swans in a harvested corn field. For me, it was a welcome sight because it means spring is here. Even though we will get more snow and temperatures below freezing, things will warm up.
During my travels this week, I found sandhill cranes at Mud Lake, Market Lake, Deer Parks Wildlife Management Area and the Osgood area. They are not in great numbers yet, but family groups keep dropping in during the day, especially in the evenings.
Most of the cranes will move further north into Canada and the Idaho farmers are happy to see them continue on, even though some will spend the summer nesting here.
“I really don’t like sandhill cranes because they can eat and damage a lot of wheat,” said a Rexburg area farmer.
The loud call of the sandhill crane is a welcome sound. I love to watch them dancing as they try to impress each other. On Monday, my friend, Steve, and I, watched as two young males did their best to dance into the heart of an experienced female, but she was not impressed as she continued to eat. It was not time for her to respond by dancing for them.
Just like the sandhill cranes, tundra swans are dropping in daily, some with trumpeters and others in small family groups. Their high-pitched sounds can be heard long before you can identify them. They are a little smaller than the trumpeters. Their bills are more dished while the trumpeter’s bill is almost straight from the eye and the tundra has a small yellow spot on its bill.
In about a week, the tundras should start passing through in flocks from 20 to 50 birds and they can be much noisier than the small family groups. They will not stay long, but while migrating through, they usually visit Mud Lake and Camas National Wildlife Refuge. I have never seen a pair that stayed here and nested like some of the trumpeters do.
The number of trumpeters also grows every day in Burton and at Deer Parks WMA. Most of them will soon be moving north into Canada and they usually nest above the Arctic Circle. Some will nest in Yellowstone National Park, Island Park and a few places in the lower valleys.
With all the activity of the “big” birds and with all their noise, ducks are also joining the migration. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, thousands of ducks have joined them. While watching the rising of the moon, I captured some of the migrating ducks flying into the corn field. Most are mallards but northern pintails and American wigeons are joining the big birds.
The duck numbers usually peak on April 1, but with the storms coming in the next few days, we should see the numbers explode. The melting of the snow in the Osgood area will attract a lot of the ducks and the snow geese. We should be in for some outstanding sights during the next two weeks as these migrations continue.
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