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SAND HILL CRANES in for big disappointment.

R

RayP(MI)

Well-known Member
Looked over across neighbors field this morning. Saw something I didn't recognize. Pulled the old binoculars (I got to get a new set), anyway, unidentified critters were three sandhill cranes. They have a nesting site in a swampy area about half a mile from here. While we have had a warm spell and all the snow is gone, replaced with mud, winter is far from over. This is February - we still have March and possibly April winter to go. The birds may regret their early return.
 
I saw three of them circling Friday. Danged things are gonna get like geese and just not leave.
 
They number in the thousands around here this time of year. They land in the bottoms and stay for several months. There is a lot of people traveling to see them and the refuge has a big program on them. Sure wish they would open a season on them.
 
I had a permit to kill 10 a year. My nephew cooked one up. My son said it was the texture of liver.
 
Cranes, Geese, and the rest of the gang showed up at my place last week about the first day it started to warm up. About the time I started thinking about them I heard the honking in the distance. The fight is on, here we go again.
 
I need to check and see of the special use exemption for Avipel got renewed. Gonna be a rough year trying to grow corn without it.
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Heard a bunch of Canadian geese early this morning. With this MI weather i might tap a few trees for maple syrup tomorrow.
 
This morning I heard red wing black birds singing, just south of Omaha, NE. They are almost a month early, but the frost is out of the ground already too.
 
Don't get mad at me, but...they are Canada geese. The only Canadian geese live in Canada. OK...get mad at me if you want. :)

Sounds like you are in MI. Sap has been running around here already. The maples in the woodlot are bleeding where birds and critters have nibbled the bark to release the sap.
 
Sister-in-law and brother-in-law in Charlotte, MI have been at it for almost two weeks. Need to drop the temperature range about ten degrees for best production, but time to hop to it. No evidence of flow here yet, but sure won't be long in this weather
 
There was a news story some years ago about a guy near LaCrosse who got arrested for shooting a sandhill crane or two (prohibited in Wisconsin). He said he cooked and ate them.

Somebody who was curious asked him what they tasted like, and he said "A lot like eagle".
 
Haven't seen any yet in northern MI or the eastern UP. Snow is not gone here yet either. Here is what Whitefish Point looked like a few days ago, near Paradise. Almost hit 50F.
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Saw 3 yesterday at our place in WPA; they were here all winter. Apparently don't migrate here in Pa. like they do in the Midwest.
Interesting, we never had them here until about 20 years ago and now becoming more numerous all the time.
Jim B
 
They may regret it, but they rarely do.

Migratory birds generally have a pretty good handle on things. I'm sure we're in for a few cold days and below freezing nights yet, and it is still possible we could be looking at feet of snow, but most likely the worst is behind us for this winter.
 
I think birds and other migration critters know the weather more than our weather man actually. It would be a good idea to keep up with there movements over there
 
There is a concentrated effort to preserve the winter nesting grounds (and the birds themselves) for them along our Gulf Coast. Articles pop up periodically about how the restoration process of the breed is progressing.
 
The ones with the black head and white chin strap are referred to as Canadian Geese down here as long as I have known. Never paid that much attention as to whether or not some folks said Canada or Canadian. Seems to me that it's a moot point. A Canada Goose in Texas is from Canada, thus Canadian.
 
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