Webcam shows Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska

The Rowe Sanctuary in south-central Nebraska has activated its crane cam so people can watch some of the thousands of sandhill cranes pausing on their way north to breeding grounds.

The Web-based video site can be found on the sanctuary Web site, www.rowesanctuary.org  The birds stop along an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River for three to four weeks in the spring.

Experts say the birds take advantage of the scattered corn and insect-rich cow waste in the adjacent fields, building reserves of energy for their migration. Each year they fly from their winter grounds in the southern United States and Mexico to northern Alaska, Canada and Siberia, where they spend the summer.

The Rowe Sanctuary is owned and managed by the National Audubon Society.