The Howland
Picture Pages: Sandhill Crane The Howland
Picture Pages: Sandhill CranePage by Deb & Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/01/16 04:34:11 $ (UTC)
After a hop and a skip, they nonchalantly sip some water, and then start calling out again. A few squabbles arise, but despite the thousands roosting in the same small area, they all seem to get along. The gorgeous orange glow of the sun setting over the hills seems to add to the unrealness. We get Sandhill Cranes around Calgary, breeding in the summer ponds. Bosque del Apache is a wintering area for these birds, and they get 10,000 or more cranes each winter. We would have been pleased to see even one, since they are fairly rare where we live, so seeing thousands was a treat.
See also our Bosque del Apache page.
Resources where you can find out more:
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The morning of the second day of our visit to the Bosque del Apache NWR, we saw Cranes in morning light where the day before (see photos below) we had them in the evening light. In the morning, once they have woken up a bit, the Cranes start walking in a certain direction in small groups. After walking along for awhile, they take wing and fly off to fields somewhere to feed during the day. Here a few Cranes have started their morning constitutional, while a Northern Shoveler cruises in the background.
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The first mass of cranes we saw was at the end of our first day at the Bosque del Apache, November 16, 2002. We had staked out a pond, waiting for the return of the cranes from the neighboring fields where they feed during the day. (See our Bosque del Apache page.) As the cranes landed in the pond, a few went wading alone, like the one shown in this photo. Since the light was low, I was shooting ISO 400 which makes the exposures a little grainy.
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This photo was kind of a fluke. In the increasing darkness, the reflections of the cranes are ghostly images. To me, it looks like a Monet picture, without all the flowers.
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Perhaps they're parched after a day of foraging in the fields of grain (specially planted for them!), because the first thing the cranes would do after landing was take a few sips of water. The cranes come to these small ponds to roost at night, perhaps feeling safer from predators in the middle of water. We were fairly close to the pond, so the cranes would fly in only a few feet above our heads, silent except for the rush of wind over their wings.
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Cranes forage for food in family groups. The farmland in the refuge and neighboring area is planted with corn, winter wheat and other yummy crops (if you're a bird that is) to support the enormous number of birds that winter in the Bosque every year. Here a family group is foraging along one of the refuge pathways, the morning of November 17, 2002. We had come out before first light to catch the lift-off of the Snow Geese, and stuck around to see who else might be active first thing in the morning.
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While the family group forages, one of the cranes stands guard. The guard watches for predators and bird nuts, making sure they don't encroach too closely on the hungry birds' stash of food. Yes, that really is the color of their eyes, and not red eye from a flash!
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Incoming! Like a B-52 bomber, or a 747 jet, these birds look ungainly on the ground and during takeoff and landing, but they sure can move fast. In the morning, all the cranes start walking in one direction in the pond where they stayed over-night. Speculation is that maybe they're warming up after a night of frosty weather. Family groups chatter to each other, and then all of a sudden the signal is given, and off they go, 4 - 5 birds at a time. They spend the day foraging in the fields nearby.
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