Viewing the Cranes

Joseph T. Springer,Ph.D.
Department of Biology,
University of Nebraska at Kearney

Even though many thousands of cranes visit the Big Bend area, sometimes getting a good view can be difficult. Most of the land along the Platte River is privately owned. Farmers do not want people driving or walking through their wet fields in the spring. It is not legal, nor safe, to park on a bridge just because one wants to see cranes roosting. Cranes will not allow observers to get very close. They tend to be less wary of spectators that stay within cars although they will tend to continually walk away. Thus, field glasses will help.

Changing river conditions have compressed most of the cranes into the ninety-mile stretch of the Big Bend from Lexington to Grand Island. Within this area the easiest option for crane viewing is to drive along a paved road that lies within three miles of the Platte River during daylight hours between late February and early April. The cranes forage near the river at the beginning of the season but will range up to five miles from it toward the end when the closest fields have been picked clean of waste corn.

Bridges that cross the Platte River are publicly owned, as are the shoulders of the roadways leading to and away from them. The shoulders tend to be narrow and soft, so great care should be exercised when parking on them. There are three areas adjacent to the Platte that the public can use to see cranes. The Fort Kearny State Recreation Area has a hiking trail bridge across the river from which roosting can be observed. The Lillian Annette Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon and Crane Meadows near Grand Island have blinds set up so that observers can see the cranes come to the roost sites in the evening or leave in the morning. Both require reservations, but the sights are spectacular. Due to the popularity of the sandhill cranes in recent years, it may be that other viewing areas will become available. The visitor's bureau of one of the local communities will always have up-to-date information on viewing opportunities.

Crane Facts:
Color:Sandhill cranes are generally gray feathered with occasional rust-colored streaks. Adults have a red forehead while yearlings have a dark brown forehead.
Height: Adult cranes vary in height from thirty-four to forty-eight inches. The differences are not due to age but rather to the genetics of the individual subspecies. Most cranes in the Big Bend region are lesser sandhills, the smallest subspecies.
Wingspan: Lesser sandhill cranes have a wingspan of approximately six feet. Greater sandhill cranes have a span of seven feet.
Weight: While flying cranes appear quite large, they only weigh six to ten pounds.
Mating: Sandhill cranes mate for life, pairing up for the first time during the winter before their third birthday. Yearlings stay with their parents for one year. When the parents return to the nesting grounds, last year's offspring are kept out of the parents' territory.
Reproduction: Cranes always lay two greenish-brown eggs. Both parents take turns incubating. The first egg laid hatches a few days before the second. Although the young birds are guarded by their parents, it is rare that both survive the first year of life. When cranes fly in groups of three, the middle bird is usually the single surviving offspring.
Diet: The typical diet of a crane depends upon the time of year. On wintering grounds in Texas, about half their diet is tubers from sedge, a grass-like plant. On the staging grounds along the Platte River, over eighty percent of the diet is corn. On nesting grounds in Alaska, over fifty percent of the diet is bulbs of arrow-grass.

From The Platte River Atlas