Visit central Nebraska in the spring and you’ll find some interesting seasonal visitors. For 1000’s of years, literally, the sandhill crane, along with the much less common whooping crane, will take part in a month long stop over on their northward migration.
Beginning in late February and running into early April, you’ll find cranes in abundance, particularly along an 80 miles stretch of the Platte river. The area around Grand Island and Kearney, tend to have the heaviest concentrations. During this month long bird fest, the counts indicate about 600,000 cranes come through the area.
There are two primary facilities that provide viewing blinds for the cranes. The Crane Trust Nature & Visitors center is just west of Grand Island, right off Interstate 80, and the Rowe Sanctuary is just southeast of Kearney, with easy access just a few miles south of I80. Both provide excellent viewing locations via a network of blinds. Some are more suited to general viewing, and others to photography, but regardless of which one you choose, you will no doubt see a lot of cranes at either an early morning, or evening session.
Cranes are quite habitual in their daily activities. They will roost over night on the Platte and then early every morning they’ll begin to leave for nearby fields to feed. They can congregate in massive groups in some areas where leftover grains might be plentiful. Towards dusk, they’ll fly back to the river again to roost. As you might imagine, these flights are made up of massive numbers of birds…it’s an incredible sight to watch or photograph.
Speaking of photography, as mentioned earlier, both facilities offer photography blinds for the avid birder. These cost a bit more than that general viewing blinds but spots are more limited and there are less restrictions on shooting. In the general blinds, space can really be tight so tripods are not allowed, although you can bring a monopod. Also because the cameras can make some unwanted noise, there is no burst shooting allowed…just single shot, which certainly can limit what you come away with when a crane flies by. The photography blinds have no such restrictions. For the real die hard photographer, you can also rent a private blind, where they drop you off in the late afternoon before the cranes come back…you can photograph the cranes coming in for the evening, spend the night in the blind, then shoot again in the morning, with an attendant picking you up mid morning.
The really nice thing about the area is you don’t necessarily have to find a spot in a viewing blind to get a good look at the cranes. They are found almost everywhere during the day. Just drive around a bit and you won’t miss the large flocks. Toward evening there are a couple of viewing spots along the Platte that are set up by the state, which are quite good, and free to attend.
Although I think both the Crane Trust and Rowe Sanctuary are excellent spots to visit, most of my time has been spent around Rowe. The viewing there has been exceptional and I’ve never had a bad experience there thus far. That’s saying something because the weather in mid March, in Nebraska can be pretty variable. It can get downright cold and wet, and turn out to be a beautiful 70 degree spring day. Some days may start out foggy, others clear and bright…so you have to be prepared for pretty much anything.
I appreciate the educational work of both facilities. They work very hard to educate people of all ages about the cranes and their ancient migration path over the American midwest. It is an epic, seemingly timeless journey that one can witness ever spring and it truly is an experience of a lifetime.
One thing you will learn about regarding this vitally important resting stop for the cranes is the importance of habitat. One could say this about any form of wildlife really…they must have healthy and adequate habitat to survive and this could not be more true for the cranes. They depend on the Platte river more than you might imagine. If there were no water, the birds simply would not stop because they would lack the nightly protection the river provides for them. This migration has been going on for a long, long time…some evidence suggests around 10,000 years based on fossil remains.
Yet the Platte has gone through some major changes in the last 100 years. The ever present need for water, for us in agriculture and to support some western cities, has seen the mountain sources diverted away from the Platte…so today it is just a fragment of what it used to be, which was a very wide, very shallow, slower flowing river. Where once sand bars through much of Nebraska would be cleared due to spring flooding and wash outs, today, many are choked over with brush, and cranes can’t use these for roosting. Some clearing is done yearly to help maintain the open sand bars, but it would be hard on the entire Platte river valley if more water was diverted. Both the Crane Trust and Rowe Audubon are working hard to keep the river flowing and available for the cranes.
To support this important work, or research the wonderful viewing blinds visit either The Rowe Audubon Sanctuary, or the Crane Trust via their respective links.