The sky is suddenly blanketed with a massive cloud of flapping prehistoric-looking wings. Eerie ghostly sounds echo across the Platte river as an ancient song formed by the almost in unison trills of an enormous avian choir is heard once more.
Heralding the beginning of Spring on the Nebraska prairie, channelling into the age-old 50-mile stretch of the Platte River Valley, the same valley that pioneers clung to on their long journey west, over a half-million sandhill cranes home in on their ancestral roosts. It's an annual event that draws bird watchers and other tourists to the Nebraska towns of Kearney and Grand Island, which bracket the nesting grounds of these birds that have been arriving here for over 2 million years.
For the cranes it's a pit stop on the journey north to their breeding grounds. They stop here for the safety and access to food and water that the sand bars of the Platte and the harvested Nebraska corn fields provide. Every sunrise during their late February to early April stay along the Platte, they ride the thermals in groups seeking grounds to feed. Then in a frenzy they gorge themselves until dusk when they fill the sky once more heading back to the river. (During the day, tourists drive the back roads near the Platte observing this natural wonder.)
In addition to tourists, the cranes bear up with the arbitrary Nebraska March weather and its struggle between Winter and Spring, a warm 60 degrees one day, a plunge into the 20s the next. They blend into the warm yellow and brown corn husks one day, only to be blanketed in snow the next.
Alarmed by sightseers and photographers, the leader bird will rise up tall both protesting the intrusion and alerting his followers to ready for flight.
Along the byways near the Platte, the cranes can be observed often in pairs, usually mating for life, and not pairing again unless an initial choice is lost.
While you can watch these magnificent birds in the corn fields and see them in the air, the best viewing is at the sanctuaries along the Platte. The Rowe Sanctuary near Kearney provides tours and opportunities for sleepovers in blinds. Another popular viewing area is at Alda Bridge Crane Viewing Site southwest of Grand Island. More information on viewing and etiquette for watching the sandhills can be found at Nebraska Travels.
The sandhill's stay in Nebraska each year is brief and startlingly beautiful, one I feel privileged to have witnessed before their flight onward on a journey that takes them to their breeding grounds in Canada and the Artic.
