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Photos by John Kopp
Wednesday, 07 April 2010
A sense of time lies thick and heavy on such a place. Yearly since the ice age
it has awakened each spring to the clangor of cranes.
-Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanc
You hear them before you see them. Their ancient, rattle-like call rising up from the river bank is audible well before the sun begins to peak above the horizon. There are half a million sandhill cranes waking up along this sixty-mile stretch of the Platte River in Nebraska. Fossil records show their presence here dates back at least nine million years. As I sit near the river on this chilly March morning, it's hard for me to imagine that far back in time.
When the sun starts to brighten the sky, the cranes begin to leave their nighttime roost along the sandbars of the river. They take to the sky in groups and venture out into the surrounding fields to begin the day's work. Their purpose in this month-long stopover is to build enough energy to continue their spring flight north. Ultimately, they will end up in various parts of North America, Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. My dad and I drove 400 miles from northern Colorado. The cranes, however, have flown more than twice that and still have hundreds of miles to go.
But for now, their focus is on the stubbled corn fields that cover this part of the Nebraskan landscape. During these important weeks, the cranes depend on the waste grain for 90% of their diet. This will give them the considerable energy it takes to fly between 200 and 300 miles per day on the journey up to their breeding grounds.
Sometimes they like to do a little dancing. It helps relieve energy and strengthen the bonds between pairs. We drive along the rural backroads between Grand Island and Kearney looking for this specific phenomenon. They congregate in groups of hundreds and a few of them dance in the distance. They're wary of the car, though, and a picture is hard to get. But a little patience pays off in the end.
My neck begins to ache and I realize I'm looking up far more than usual. Throughout the day, large groups of the birds are flying so high in the sky you almost can't see them at all. They are testing the thermals which they will opportunistically ride as far as they can when they travel north again. Sandhill cranes are very energy efficient.
As night draws near, the cranes make their way back to the river and it's sandbars. The sandbars, though, are not as protective as they used to be for the birds. Agriculture and reservoirs have diverted and dammed the Platte for use as far away as Colorado's expanding Front Range. The river's flow has diminished by over 70% and trees and willows now grow where there once were none. The cranes, as always, are forced to adapt to the changes.
When the sun begins to set, I am no longer thinking of roosting habitat or river conservation. I forget about corn fields and energy efficiency and what it was like nine million years ago. I am content just to be sitting on a riverbank with my dad watching the black silhouettes drop out of the sky and listening to the clangor of cranes.
More Information:
Cranes in Nebraska, an article from Prairie Fire
An article and video about the cranes from the Omaha Herald
Platte River Recovery Program
Lillian Annette Rowe Bird Sanctuary
Books:
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes by Peter Matthiessen
On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of North America by Michael Forsberg
Those of the Gray Wind: The Sandhill Cranes by Paul A. Johnsgard
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