If you can believe it, I’ve lived in Nebraska all my life and I’ve never made the pilgrimage to see the migration of the Sandhill Cranes through Nebraska. My husband has gone several times. He’s taken our boys, his mother and my father. He’s taken groups of Scouts and high school students. It was now my turn to see and hear the famous Sandhill Cranes as they stop over on the Platte River to fatten up for the trip up North.
We saw, and heard, lots of birds. There were many Snow Geese, a few ducks and tens of thousands of Sandhill Cranes. The cranes spend up to 3 weeks along the Platte River adding about a pound of weight. They spend the day in the cornfields eating and doing their famous dance. Then they descend to the river to spend the night. Unfortunately the spot we choose, off of I-80 at the Alda exit, was not the spot that the cranes decided to spend the night. That is what I found was the main lesson of birding, patience.
Being a casual birder has also taught me to dress warmly, in layers, and to not look at your watch. I’m glad I didn’t look at my watch while standing on the viewing platform. You can’t rush a bird, even tens of thousands of birds. It was quite freeing to be unplugged yesterday. But I have some pictures and videos to remember our time with the birds. I wish I had a better camera!
Here is a crane cam at the Rowe Sanctuary.
I also found a link to an MP3 of their unique call.
Thanks for sharing! Love the sound of the cranes. 🙂
Being a "city boy", I always love the sounds of nature and exploring all of God’s creations! How great Thou art, O Lord!Thanks Barb!!
Jason, I believe it’s an ESU camera that provides the Crane cam at the Rowe Sanctuary.
Deacon John, God is good…all the time!
Yes, it’s a combination of different groups that support this. Originally, the camera was from National Geographic. They found it was too much work and needed to cut expenses so the crane cam was cut from their budget. That’s when Rowe contacted us and asked to help provide the hosting. So, with the camera from NG, that sends a signal back to the Rowe building wirelessly from about a mile up river. The Rowe staff maintain and control the camera. Then, ESU 10 takes that signal and sends it over the phone line back to our building in Kearney. This is done over a telephone line donated by NCTC. We then transcode the signal and stream it out over the internet using our servers and bandwidth out to the Internet. It’s a group effort that has worked really, really well the last two years!
Jason, that is a wonderful story of teamwork. Thanks for providing it! I would love to show a recorded section of the cranes going down for the night or waking up in the morning. Is that available?
I’m not aware of one. I know we did record one last year but don’t know where that went. You might post a message on their Facebook page and ask – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rowe-Sanctuary/82721642548