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Andrew
Griswold, Director of EcoTravel
35 Pratt Street, Suite 201
Essex 06426
860-767-0660
Fax: 860-767-9988
E-Mail
Us Anytime!
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bird watching nature tours, international natural history tours,
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Copyright
2006 All Rights Reserved to Connecticut Audubon Society
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Nature Photos of the Week
November 16, 2007
Sandhill Cranes!
 
For five weeks each spring, visitors to the Platte River valley in south-central Nebraska can enjoy the symphony of sounds and dancing rituals of 90 percent of the world's sandhill cranes. Approximately 500,000 sandhill cranes stop to gain energy from the fertile lands along the Platte River. From mid-February to mid-April the cranes can be seen and heard for 30 miles along the Platte River. In addition to cranes, visitors will see 10 million ducks and geese that use the Platte and the neighboring Rainwater Basin wetlands. More than 2 million snow geese stopped in south-central Nebraska last spring alone.
Join CT Audubon EcoTravel this March 27 - April 1, 2008 for this special experience.
Click for Link to Platte River Itinerary:
Platte River 2008
Click for Link to Crane Slideshow of Nesting Bird with Young:
http://groverphoto.phanfare.com/slideshow.aspx?username=groverphoto&album_id=304621§ion_id=410485
The Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) is a large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. They have the longest fossil history of any extant bird, with a 10 million year-old specimen having been found whose structure is identical to the modern Sandhill Crane.
© 2006 Frank Gallo
Adults are grey; they have a red forehead, white cheeks and a long dark pointed bill. They have long dark legs which trail behind in flight and a long neck that is kept straight in flight. Immature birds have reddish brown upperparts and grey underparts. The other large, grayish-bodied wader of North America is the Great Blue Heron Although this heron is of similar dimensions to the sandhill and is sometimes given the misnomer "crane," it is extremely different in plumage, method of flight (it flies with its neck tucked towards the body instead of extended) and general structure.
© 2006 Frank Gallo
Size varies among the different races of Sandhill Cranes. A female of the race G. c. canadensis, or the Lesser Sandhill Crane averages 3.34 kg (7.4 lbs), 98 cm (39 in) in length and has a wingspan of 1.6 m (5.3 ft). A male of the race G. c. tabida or the Greater Sandhill Crane averages 5 kg (11 lbs), 119 cm (47 in) in length and has a wingspan of 2.12 m (7 ft). Both sexes look alike.
© 2006 Frank Gallo
Their breeding habitat is marshes and bogs in central and northern Canada, Alaska, part of the northwestern, midwestern and southeastern United States, Siberia and Cuba. They nest in marsh vegetation or on the ground close to water. The female lays two eggs on a mound of vegetation. Cranes mate for life; both parents feed the young, called colts, who are soon able to feed themselves. The Sandhill Crane does not breed until it is two to seven years old. It can live up to 25 years in the wild; in captivity they have been known to live more than twice that span. Mated pairs stay together year round, and migrate south as a group with their offspring.
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