We live beneath a Sandhill Crane flyway and have been waiting for their trumpets to sound this year. So far, we haven’t heard any although some may have flown over while we were asleep or otherwise engaged. But it may be a little early. We didn’t hear the first until October 27th last year.
But they are on their way. The USGS has satellite transmitters on at least three this year. They left Alaska and are at least as far south as the state of Washington. You can follow their progress on the USGS crane migration page and other birds on the main page.
You can also follow their migration here. We’ll report when we hear the first. It is one of the autumn rites of passage that make up for the absence of Hummingbirds and the coming of winter.
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Sally King was the photographer.
Tags: birds, Migrating Birds, Sandhill Cranes, USGS
August 4, 2009 at 9:56 am |
Hi,
I just wanted to say that we believe we saw three of these creatures on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada last Friday, July 31st, 2009, as they flew over us while driving on top of a hill, just beside the farm land where they landed and fed for quite a while.
At first, we thought they were blue herons but also knew that they usually fly around water.
After searching on the internet, we’re pretty convinced that they had to be sandhilll cranes. They were pretty noisy as they landed on the farm field.
Beautiful!!!
September 6, 2009 at 5:51 pm |
My husband and I were driving past a cemetery in the Libertyville, IL,
area and spotted three sandhill cranes ‘grazing’ in the cemetery . We
saw them on September 4 and 5th in the afternoon. Today , the 6th,
we couldn’t find them. We will try again but they have probably
moved on. We felt so fortunate to have seen them!
October 18, 2009 at 11:58 am |
Hey, I just got back from my hunting trip near McLeese Lake B.C. Canada. There were hundreds of cranes migrating through there heading south. Their flyway was off their usual route by close to twenty miles. Most impressive with their constant “cackling” we would here them long before we would see them and then we had to really strain to see them as they were so high. Some usually groups of six would land near the farm we stayed at for an evening, then would leave and join larger flights in the morning. All this took place from Oct. 1 2009 through to Oct. 10 2009. We had daily sightings in this span.
October 27, 2009 at 12:21 pm |
we are getting a new library and it will be called SANDHILL LIBRARY.IN SILVER SPRINGS FLORIDA.
We have several sets of Sandhill Cranes that live here year round.I am going to make some bookmarkers for our grand opening in the spring .So I am peeking around to learn more. I do some of my sketching in my daughters yard where they often visit the wild bird seeds thrown out
for the many fur and feather critters.Most enjoyable to watch.
best wishes to all,enjoy the creators gifts.May the song birds sing in your honor.
December 30, 2009 at 8:02 pm |
A family of 4 sandhill cranes permanently reside at our pond in DeBary, FL, a N.E. Orlando suburb. We walk up to them, quite face-to-face. They watch us carefully, but do not move, whether at the pond, or on the sidewalk in front of the house. In the morning, their echoing honks trumpet across the pond. They’ll occasionally hang out on the other side of our swimming pool screen, and appear to be watching us admiring them! Amazing, gorgeous, TALL birds.