Sandhill cranes beginning journey to Nebraska
Posted By: KLKN Newsroom
Sandhill cranes are already beginning their journey to Nebraska.
Each spring more than 500,000 come to the Platte River Valley.
The skies may have looked clear Saturday evening, but by the Platte River, all you saw was hundreds of thousands of Sandhill cranes migrating.
People say they’re fascinated with these birds.
Nebraskans we spoke with said this is a sign spring is on its way.
"It as a kickoff to our tour season. We work hard all year round and finally get to show off to a select crowd specifically the Sandhill crane migration. It’s one of the greatest migrations in the world," Brice Krohn said.
The Crane Trust in Alda calls the Platte a staging area, where cranes stop to rest and regain their strength to move forward, while traveling north to their nesting grounds in Alaska, Canada and Siberia.
"They’re here on the Platte River. They just started their migration from the wintery grounds in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. They’re coming out here to meet new mates, to get ready for their breeding season and get nice and fat from our corn," said Kelsey King.
People come from all over the world to see these cranes. Mary Maguire, a Sioux City native, says she’s fascinated with these birds and comes here every year to see them. But last year says she came at the wrong time and missed them.
This year she wasn’t going to make that same mistake.
"I just think they’re an awesome bird. You know they are just so cool, their antics are so fun to watch,” Maguire said.
She also said they’re very different from other birds.
"It’s like their dancing out there jumping around, having a wonderful time. I think it’s their mating dance or whatever but it’s just fun to watch them,” Maguire said.
Sandhill cranes migrate in individual family groups, but here in Nebraska the birds migrate in groups and are very social.
You still have a chance to see the cranes if you missed them.
The cranes usually stay for 4 to 6 weeks and the number of cranes usually peaks at the end of March, but some birds stay later and will be here until April.
