Sandhill Crane Migration at Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska

This is one of the most amazing sights you can see in bird migration in North America. I call it the “Burning Man” of the sandhill crane world. Tens of thousands of sandhill cranes converge on the Platte River every spring for a few weeks to feast in the nearby corn fields and spend the night in the safety of the shallow sandbars of the Platte River. During their brief stay they fatten up for their flights north for the summer, some as far north as the arctic circle.

The Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary offers the best seats in the house. There are a handful of photography blinds that can be rented to capture the event. Sunday evening I spent the night in one of the blinds.

My photographs don’t do the spectacle justice at all, I’m honestly not that happy with my results, but then I guess that just gives me a reason for coming back next year. Once again I found myself very under lensed, Someday I really need to get a 600! But it’s hard to justify that expense  with the income I’m making at art shows. (what I’m currently making hardly justifies the expense of a Holga!) But it was amazingly fun to witness, it’s certainly a moment to remember!

But for better or worse, here are some of the photos…

The cranes start arriving shortly before sunset from their day spent in the cornfields picking up corn left behind from the harvesting of the fields last fall.

I had hoped to get nice photos of the cranes dancing, something they do a lot of. Unfortunately the sandbars were probably 60 yards from the blind, way too far away for my 300 to get real tight shots. Looks like I need to get a 600 and come back next year!!

The cranes spend the night sleeping on the sandbars for safety from predators. This 1 second exposure after nightfall kind of reminds me of the old street photographs from the turn of the century. When you are in the photography blinds you have to spend the night as well so you don’t disturb the cranes. They drop you off around 5 pm and pick you up again after 9 am when all the cranes are gone, and you are under strick orders not to leave the blind at all.

Even before sunrise the sandhill cranes start taking flight to once again go out and feed for the day.

We had one fairly large liftoff right around sunrise. Sometimes the birds all take off in massive groups that nearly clear the river all at once. The day I was there they took off in smaller groups most all morning. This was the largest liftoff of the morning. It was spectacular to witness but something hard to capture in a still photograph.

Sandhill cranes dance for many reasons, it’s not just a mating ritual. It seemed like the cranes were having the time of their lives here at this huge gathering on the Platte River. Each time a large group took off cranes still on the water danced in excitement.

This is an example of the kinds of photos I was hoping to get, a lot closer than the above photos. For this photo I just cropped on in a lot. Good enough resolution for a blog photo, but more cropping than I can do for an enlargement.

This shot of me with a 14mm lens makes the blind look rather spacious, but the dimensions are 6 x 8 feet with a 4 foot roof. Two of us had to sleep in here too. Boy it felt good to stand up in the morning when they came got us. Steve, one of my workshop students from my workshop in the Everglades traveled up from Kansas City to join me in the blind for the evening.

Steve outside the blind in the morning as our ride arrived to take us back to the sanctuary visitor’s center.