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SANDHILL
CRANES
COUNTED
THE EVENING OF:
MARCH 2008
11th - 19 First "official cranes"
(Dale Smith called after he saw them flying above Cedar Mesa)
12th - 0 Colder and overcast. The forecast for the next
two days is not amenable to crane flight. . . .so we'll see.
13th - 0. Front coming in from the North this evening.
14th - 0. So what if the cranes didn't show. The rest
of the ice left the reservoir and there's a ton of waterfowl to watch.
Please come to the presentations on Saturday! And, there's
a good chance of crane arrivals Saturday afternoon!
15th - 175 - maybe more, but not many. Finally- the sounds of Cranes!
16th - 50 huddled next to shore as the snow started blowing this evening. Received the following report tonight from Monte Vista in the San Luis Valley: "More [cranes] are present now than were on hand a week ago for the Monte Vista
Crane Festival [on March 8th]. Cranes are in dense bunches, eating
and/or loafing south of the Monte Vista refuge office. . . .
[T]his Sat. and Sun., visitors who had come to Monte Vista on U.S. 160 from the east were agog about so many cranes 'all over the place' in fields east of town, too."
This tells us to be as patient as cranes for warmer weather.
17th - 325 so says Evey
18th - 2 - Holdovers from yesterday? Too nice a day for so few birds.
19th - 800 +/- Some folks thought there were more, some thought less. Either way a perfect evening.
20th - 40.
21st - I saw 125 or so. Evelyn thinks there are 200. Maybe it was warm enough but certainly too windy all day.
22nd - 500. Mostly late arrivals - the cranes probably had to work against a strong headwind this afternoon.
23rd - The BIG NIGHT! There are well over 2,000 and close
to 3,000 Cranes. There may be more than that but we'll have to
see in the morning what a more accurate will reveal.
( If you join us
in the morning PLEASE don't park on or stand in the road! People
in the area need to get to work or get their farm equipment moved.
And we don't need to act goofy when we watch birds! Park
safely and walk if you have to. )
24th - 625 Cranes. Nice evening though on the cool side.
25th - 750 or so. Many cranes came in later in the evening
under lower light, making counting a little more difficult.
26th - 275 cranes.
27th - 36 according to Evey Horn. (By 7:00 p.m. I saw
none - but I did see 30 cormorants in the cottonwood trees near the
dam.)
28th - 2,500 cranes is Evey's guess. In any
event there's a bunch of birds to look at on Saturday morning.
If you come, please consider the parking notice below.
Thank you.
29th - 1,550, but if there are more than that in the morning I won't be
surprised. Lots of late arrivals to the north side of the road
from nearby areas.
30th - 800. I don't know where they came from - with all the extreme wind we had today.
31st - 950. A bunch of these may have been holdovers from yesterday.
APRIIL
1st - 750 cranes
(Politically speaking - 4 for 4 - clean sweep in Orchard City
election! New mayor and three new trustees! Brave new world -
mature adults will be running things! - [Unpaid political
advertisement].)
2nd - 750 again tonight - 650 obvious for counting and, based on vocalizations, probably another 100 or so out of view in the shrubs and along the shore.
3rd - 245
4th - 610 Cranes - a pretty big number this late in the migration season. (Sorry I was late posting this tonight.)
5th - 500. Again. sorry for the late posting tonight.)
6th - 100 cranes
7th - 23. Tomorrow might be better, but the forecast for
Wednesday and Thursday looks ugly. And, we're coming
quickly to the end of the migration.
8th - 90.
9th - 36 (Holdovers because of the weather?)
10th - 28
11th - 36
12th - 40
13th - 45
14th - 20
15th - 25 Wonderful morning, big blow the rest of the day
16th - 0
17th - 26
18th - 26 (Same Cranes?)
19th - 20
20th - 20 Same cranes?)
21st - 0
22nd - ? With the warm weather finally starting up, Spring
chores are taking over, so crane diligence is diminishing with their
numbers.
[The migration is essentially over. We'll keep an eye on crane
visits for a while longer. Meanwhile we'll keep an eye on our
other feathered visitors.]
PARKING: PLEASE
find a place to park that is off the pavement and PLEASE do not set up
your tipods on the pavement! The Sheriff's Department join
many of us with concern about safety from irresponsible behavior
on the county road while crane watching.
General
disclaimer:
We
try to count Cranes around sunset
to
include the late arrivals,
and
to provide you with an idea
of
how many birds you may encounter
the
next morning at “liftoff” (usually
between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m daylight savings time).
Crane
counts are estimates of what
was
seen by one or more observers.
The
bigger the number of Cranes
the
less likely the number is accurate.
These
numbers are most useful
when
looked at as relative numbers
of
Cranes from day to day.
Sometimes
the counts we post
in
the evening are modified the
next
morning when we feel more
confident
with the accuracy of
the
morning count.
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OTHER
BIRD SPECIES SIGHTED 2008
at,
or adjacent to, the RESERVOIR:
American Coot
Canadian Geese
Northern Harrier
Ring-Necked Pheasant
Mallard
Green-Winged Teal
Great Blue Heron
Pintail
Red-winged Blackbird
American
Widgeon
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
White-Crowned Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Western Meadowlark
Golden Eagle
Black-billed Magpie
Turkey Vulture
Double-Crested Cormorant
Blue-winged Teal
Great Egret
Western Grebe
Cattle Egret
Pied-Billed Grebe
White-faced Ibis
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Crane Sightings and Other Observations at Fruitgrowers
Reservoir and the Surrounding Area
