Count on cranes to know weather

By David Horst

Sandhill crane mating behavior 

I took part in the annual Midwest Crane Count Saturday morning. That means being in place at your assigned counting area by 5:30 a.m. and staying there counting until 7:30 a.m.At 33 degrees with a stiff wind, the sandhill cranes had the good sense to stay in the woods until 6:38 a.m.

Snow from this year’s April storm still lined the rows between the corn stubble. It was better than last year’s April storm, which prevented me from getting to my site.

After an hour of seeing no cranes, the weeds and fence posts start to take on that role, until you fine tune the focus on the spotting scope.A good spotting scope is a big help on the crane count. The cranes aren’t really interested in being close to you. I could make out their figures in the morning light, but the scope allowed me to see what they were doing and get a more accurate count.
At 6:38 I finally saw two birds feeding in the field. By 6:50 there were four. At 6:58, six. At 7:10, 10 cranes. That would hold steady as my count, just as 33 held steady as the temperature.
The behavior I recorded for all 10 was “walking and feeding.” In warmer years, I sometimes saw mating behavior — cranes hopping up and down with their wings spread, or even tossing a small stick into the air repeatedly. Hey, who’s to judge what turns on another species.

This year I left all of the checkboxes for mating behavior blank. But I was still out in nature, watching the morning come. And I had the company of 10 very large, impressive birds.

Annual Midwest Crane Counts

• 2019 (10 cranes)
• 2018 missed due to weather
• 2017 missed due to illness
• 2016 (28 cranes)
• 2015 (32 cranes)
• 2014 (15 cranes)
• 2012 (9 cranes)
• 2010  (9 cranes, 1 county supervisor)
• 2009 (15 cranes, 2 children, 0 whining)
• 2008 (26 cranes)