Sandhill cranes begin their fall migration
Birdwatchers: ‘It’s something that Indiana has that’s nice to see’
They can be heard for miles. The sound an eerie, yet familiar, call of a large group of birds.
As the sun rose over sleepy Medaryville on a recent crisp autumn morning, between 200 to 300 sandhill cranes were scattered throughout a field at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area.
Thousands of sandhill cranes can been seen at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in the fall during their migration to southern states. In fact, officials have reported that Jasper-Pulaski is the largest gathering of sandhill cranes east of the Mississippi River.
The majority of the birds stood together in a noisy group, like a group of students talking about their summers on the first day of school.
In groups of three, sometimes four, some of the cranes flew in and out of the larger pack of birds. As they land, they simply glide lower to the ground.
The sandhill cranes were unfazed by the cold morning. More surprisingly, a group of the birds were equally unmoved when two deer approached them.
Then, suddenly, the birds got louder, panicked. In a swift motion, all 200 to 300 sandhill cranes flew off.
A few hundred feet away, a
eagle slowly flew over the wetland the sandhill cranes were standing in.
“That could be a good reason they got up,” said Jim Bergens, Indiana Department of Natural Resources Property Manager of Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, explaining further that some eagles prey on sandhill cranes.
During the fall, Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area has recorded “several counts” of more than 30,000 of sandhill cranes. In 2018, the peak count was 29,000 sandhill cranes in late November, Bergens said.
But, a typical fall peak count at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area ranges between 16,000 to 20,000 sandhill cranes, Bergens said. Last week, Bergens said there were roughly 3,300 sandhill cranes in the area. The week before there were around 5,400, he said.
The Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area extends over 8,000 acres — and 1,000 of those acres are wetlands, Bergens said. Sandhill cranes use wetlands to roost — or sleep — at night and to nest, he said.
“Since they use Jasper-Pulaski, and they roost in our wetland areas at night, they fly out in the morning, at sunrise, to the surrounding agricultural land to feed and rest … and then they return to those wetland areas to roost at night,” Bergens said. “You see them leaving in the morning and coming back in the evening.”
The sandhill cranes that come through Northwest Indiana nest in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and parts of Canada, Bergens said. They nest in the spring and raise their young through the summer, he said.
Sandhill cranes have an “elaborate” courtship ritual, which involves bowing, jumping, throwing twigs and calling in unison, when they select a mate, Bergens said. They lay two eggs, but because they begin incubation after laying the first egg, the chick in the second egg doesn’t always survive, Bergens said.
“You’ll see the family unit is typically three, or sometimes four, two adults and one or two chicks,” Bergens said. “Even though there may be hundreds of birds here at one time, often times you can pick out the little family units of three or four.”
In the fall, the birds, sticking with their family unit, begin their migration, Bergens said.
When sandhill cranes are migrating, they “spiral” on rising thermals of warm air, and when they reach a “favorable wind at a higher altitude” they will start gliding, Bergens said.
Traditionally, sandhill cranes have spent winters in Florida and southern Georgia, and many still do. But as their population has increased over the years the birds have also started nesting and spending winters in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, Bergens said.
People as far as Europe have come to Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area to see sandhill cranes, Bergens said. He attributes that to the nature of the birds.
“They are big. They’re easy to see. They generally congregate in larger numbers,” Bergens said. “They have lots of interesting calls. They have a loud call that’s unique.”
Pauline Dishler and Deb Schnitta came to JasperPulaski Fish and Wildlife Area from Pittsburgh to take photos of the sandhill cranes and listen to their calls. They both have seen sandhill cranes in Florida.
Schnitta said she first became interested in the birds after seeing a photo in a magazine of a sandhill crane with its baby on its back.
The two friends have traveled to Indiana twice to see the birds on their migration path.
“Part of it is their connection, how they’re connected and how vocal they are. They talk to each other the whole time,” Dishler said.
The last recorded sandhill crane nest in Indiana was in 1929 in Jasper County, Bergens said, and they returned to nest in Indiana in 1982. Also in the 1980s, the birds returned to nest in Illinois, he said.
The birds don’t leave Indiana for long, Bergens said. During their northern migration, the sandhill cranes stop in Indiana in late January or early February, he said. By March, all the cranes are “back on their nesting grounds,” he said.
“In the fall, there may be cranes that stay several weeks, but in the spring it may just be a few days and then they move on north. It’s a much faster migration and we don’t build up the big numbers like we do in the fall,” Bergens said.
Lynda Ruff, of Plymouth, said she and her husband come by often to JasperPulaski Fish and Wildlife Area to see the sandhill cranes.
“We’ve been here when there’s thousands, and it gets so loud,” she said.
Dave Sanders, of South Bend, said he’s also seen sandhill cranes in Florida, and he likes how vocal the birds are.
“They’re unusual, but it’s really neat how they protect their little ones,” Sanders said.
The population of sandhill cranes decreased from the late 1800s to the early 1900s “primarily from human disturbance and loss of habitat,” Bergens said. The birds reached their lowest population in the 1930s and 1940s, when it was estimated that there were only 300 nesting pairs of sandhill cranes, he said.
“We started protecting wetland areas, and as those areas were protected, in this case, the sandhill crane population began to increase,” Bergens said. “We’ve protected a lot of wetlands in Indiana, and the cranes and other animals benefit from those.”
Today, there are approximately 100,000 sand cranes, Bergens said.
Jim and Bobette Harper, of Kokomo, recently came to the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area to see the birds that they hear flying over their home in the spring.
“You can hear them before you see them,” Jim said.
The couple has seen the birds in Michigan, and recently learned about their migration through Indiana.
“It’s something that Indiana has that’s nice to see and know that they’re here,” Bobette said.