Travelogue: Cranes and Cather

Ten years ago or so, my husband and I went to Kearney, Nebraska for the spring migration of Sandhill Cranes. Every year since then, we have wanted to go back and this year, last week, we finally did. BTW, here is a link to our trip in 2014.

Roughly 80% of the world's population of Sandhill Cranes stop off in mid-Nebraska for a little rest and relaxation along the Platte River between February and April. They bulk up on corn droppings in the fields and fish in the river, find their mate, and socialize with friends before continuing on north where they breed and summer.

The town of Kearney definitely leans into the Sandhill Crane migration--I imagine this is peak season for the hotels, motels, and restaurants, with visitors coming worldwide to experience the skies filled with birds. The map of public viewing areas pictured below is available everywhere and was invaluable.

On a previous trip, we were happy with the Fort Kearny Hike/Bike Bridge and went there at sunset and sunrise and saw thousands of birds, bedding down for the night and taking off in the morning. 

On this trip, we went to the bridge on our first night in town and were so disappointed. Hundreds of people lining the bridge, but virtually no birds came within 300 yards of the bridge. So, the next morning, we went to the Plautz Viewing Platform a bit east of the bridge, and were thrilled to see hundreds of birds take off. So that evening and the following morning, we went back to the viewing platform and experienced what we had remembered from 10 years ago. 

Flocks of cranes fill the daytime sky as they scope out the best cornfields.

Cleaning up last year's corn crop...

Feasting on fish, bugs, basically anything they can swallow.

The Rowe Sanctuary provides blinds that you can book (probably six months in advance) as well as tours. We didn't do either this trip, but may book a blind for next year. Yes, I want to go back next year.

After the morning bird show, we headed off to the town of Kearney for breakfast and discovered a wonderful coffeeshop that does killer scrambled eggs. If you are ever in Kearney for breakfast, try Kitt's Kitchen. The staff is friendly, the food and hot beverages are great, and the atmosphere is so inviting.

On to Red Cloud

Because the crane show is really a sunrise/sunset affair, we decided to go an hour south of Kearney to Red Cloud and visit the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Although I haven't read even half of her novels, I consider Cather one of my favorite American authors.

  

The exhibit at the Center is exceptional, and I learned so much about her life and work and career. The Center offers tours of her childhood home, but we didn't have time for the tour so just stopped by to take some photos. I believe the town of Red Cloud is now smaller than when she lived there in the 1880s and 1890s, but we did find a place for lunch (Juan's Bar and Grill) across the street from the Center that made a very good cheeseburger and fries!

The house Cather lived in as a child.

Cather describes this house in detail in The Song of the Lark, which is the most recent Cather that I have read. I also picked up a couple of her later novels that I haven't yet read. Lucy Gayheart was published in 1935, and Sapphira and the Slave Girl is her last novel, published in 1940.

The road trip to Nebraska was so rewarding--getting up before the birds, watching the sun rise and listening to the world come to life, shivering in the cold with hundreds of other people who want to witness one of Earth's great migrations. Discovering new gems in the heartland. Seeing the landscape that inspired one of my favorite authors. Exploring my own backyard. Watching the sun set on a beautiful river.

Travelogue: Sandhill Cranes in Kearney, Nebraska

This past weekend we joined hundreds of fellow birders and drove out to Kearney, Nebraska to watch hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes rest up midway in their annual migration up to their nesting grounds in Canada.  It's estimated that 80% of the world's population of sandhill cranes pass through the Kearney area every spring during a six-week period.

It was a wonderful, smile-filled, awe-inspiring trip and well worth the mere 5.5 hours it took to get there from our home in Colorado.

Here's what we saw...

During the day, the cranes fill up and clean up corn fields not yet plowed for planting.  You can see them feeling frisky as they dance in the spring sun-- crane dancing includes wing flapping, bowing, jumps and simply playing around.  Dancing is part of the mating ritual (see Jane Austen for details!), but I think the actual mating is delayed until the birds reach their nesting grounds.  This is just the warm up.

As you drive around the area, the fields surrounding the river are filled with cranes as are the skies as they move around looking for the best fields.

We watched from a bridge across the Platte River as the cranes settled in for the night. Many huddled together (ala March of the Penguins) on the river's islands and even in the water, which is very shallow.  I heard someone describe the Platte as "a mile wide and a foot deep"--not quite, but the water didn't reach the birds' knees.  The naturalist at the Rowe Sanctuary said that cranes like to sleep in the river because that way they can hear predators, like coyotes, splashing as they approach their prey.  

We got to the bridge about 6:30 pm, set up our camera and spotting scope, and then enjoyed watching other water fowl as we waited for sunset.  I was surprised that the birds really didn't settle in until it was just about dark.  It was so cool to see and hear a distant flock rise up from a corn field, swarm around for a bit, and then settle down into the river for the night.

Whooping cranes, which is an endangered species, occasionally are spotted in amongst the sandhill cranes.  We were lucky enough to be standing next to some very experienced birders who were able to pick out a white crane amongst the thousands of gray ones, and we found it in our spotting scope and watched it as it was jostled and generally made to feel unwelcome until it finally flew away to find a more tolerant group to huddle with.

The next morning, at first light, the birds started taking off.  We were back on the bridge in the dark by 6 am--it was less crowded than the night before--but still a fair number of people out to witness one of nature's great events. As we walked the half mile from the parking lot to the bridge, you could hear the soft murmurings of the cranes as they rested in the river, gearing up for the day's work of eating enough to make the rest of the journey north.

By the time it was this light, all the birds had left the part of the river that we could see from the bridge.  

And by the time we were headed back into town for breakfast before the drive back to Colorado, the cranes were already hard at work in the fields around Kearney and the Platte River.

For more information:

National Wildlife Foundation article on Sandhill Cranes

Rowe Sanctuary - they also have a Crane Cam, which is available if you can't make the trip to Kearney

Nature Conservancy blog post - really great tips on how to make the most of your trip to Kearney

I absolutely loved going to see the cranes resting during their spring migration, and I can imagine making my own annual migration to Kearney to witness theirs.