You post about cranes a lot. (Go figure: You're perfectly situated to see millions!) I find them equally fascinating. If you and Leone ever want to plan a trip to crane mecca let me know. I know of a really nice B&B with a murphy bed about an hour away! ;o)

In the meantime, happy crane watching! I wish you luck!

Inform the uninformed? What's so amazingly interesting? Tell me more so I can live vicariously! I can understand birdwatching (my heart sings when I see the titmouse, since I know my favorite holidays are approaching, I delight in grackles with their piercing yellow eyes have a piercing mind (for a bird)...).

Because, as George said, it's a bird of Europe and Asia...but there are a few among the migrants in Nebraska.
Linda C

Rob, If you delight in grackles, please come down here & take some back home with you. We must have millions & they're regarded as a pest.

Can you even imagine 25,000 to 35,000 of these magnificent birds taking off from the river at sunrise. Awe inspiring, Leone was actually crying with emotion, their cry is so eerie and with that many at once it is unlike anything you can imagine. As they circled from the river they blotted out the sun which was just peeping over the horizon.

We actually have a smaller group of birds here than they do about 50 miles east of here so it is hard to imagine what the spectacle must be.

There was a nice story in the Omaha paper yeasterday about the volunteers that come here every year to help out with the hordes of visitors that visit the blinds and sanctuarys, one was from British Columbia, he has been coming here for the last 14 years and says he really isn't a bird watcher but the sight of close to a half million of these large prehistoric birds has captivated him. He talked about a woman from New York state that came out to a blind one sunrise and did nothing but complain, too cold, too dark and too early but when the birds left the river she began crying, touched his arm and apologized.. Even someone that isn't greatly into nature would have a hard time not being impressed when the birds blacken the sky and begin calling.

I meant what is it about all cranes, what's their special thing? Big and graceful, with an eerie cry. I'll have to find a wave file for that (or go visit Michelle's handmade muphy bed and have chocolate martinis while listening to her with her french group...).

Huh. Grackles are not highly populous here. Wonder why? Our pests are ordinary starlings. Now those birds must really be blondes and are irritating!

Is this what they sound like? Number 45?

For some reason I couldn'
t listen to your link but Youtube has a sandhill cranes calling and if you hear that muliply it in your mind by many tens of thousands. Comparing cranes to grackles is somewhat like comparing ostriches to wrens. Both birds, yes but a little different.

I've been there for the evening landing several times, but never for the take off.
What I find so amazing is that there are THAT many. They are not inconspicuous birds. If you had a pair nesting within 10 miles you would go with your binocs to see. Once and only once do I remember seeing them other than enmasse...and we were walking along a path and chatting in some scenic spot somewhere in the US ( sorry I forget just where) and found a woman with binoculars asking us to shuss! She silently pointed and there was a huge bird with a red crown. We watched a bit, then moved quietly away.
Now, where are all these birds the rest of the year?
Linda C

If you are asking about the Sandhills, Linda, Wisconsin is among the few areas with an unusually heavy breeding concentration in the summer months. I used to hear them en masse at high altitude when I lived in GA, and I've seen thousands at a time gather for the fall migration, but for the last month or so, I don't think there's a day that's gone by that I haven't seen 1-3 of them getting ready for their breeding. I almost always see some every time I get in my car and go anywhere... but I always look for them.

Robin, here's a pretty good video of what Gandle is experiencing right now. He experiences them as travelers, while we experience them as locals, so while we both know the bird well, we know very different aspects of it.

Gandle, back to your original comment about the siting of the Eurasian Crane, the locals are right to get excited, as you are nowhere near their flyway. There was one line in the first Eurasian link I posted that caught my eye... the last sentence under 'Threats:' "The loss of the historic Mesopotamian wetlands in Iraq has likely displaced thousands of Eurasian Cranes in the Middle East." Wouldn't it be fascinating to learn from where these particular refugees hailed... and why?