MUSAP ~ Martha's United States of America Photos: Nebraska ~ Cranes and Raptors

Nebraska!

Day 3 of Migration of the Sandhill Cranes: A World-Class Experience with the Road Scholar group. This day brought us more sandhill cranes and learning about raptors, and yes it was another early start.

Waiting for Crane Rise on the Platte River

We headed out at 6:45 to see another Crane Rise. This time we went to an observation deck near the Crane Trust Visitor Center. Because the cranes were on the other side of the street we crossed over and stood on the safe side of the guard rail to watch as they awakened and rose up from the sand banks in and along the river.

Sunrise and Crane Rise

The sunrise was pretty, but it didn’t warm us up very well. It was cooler being outdoors to watch the Crane Rise than it had been in the birding blind 2 mornings earlier. I shot some video of the Crane Rise to share the motion, color, and sounds. They’re in the flickr album.

Historical marker with crane information

As it got lighter we could see that there were thousands of cranes on the sandbanks where they had spent the night. They roost near shallow water because they can’t roost on branches because of they don’t have a long hind toe to grasp.

Silhouetted Sandhill Cranes

CLICK HERE to see photos and video of the Crane Rise on flickr.

Who travels to the Crane Center?

We were happy to get back to the van to warm up. We went to the Crane Trust Visitor Center where they had hot coffee waiting. There was also a guy there from a Nebraska winery who was doing a tasting event - a little early in the day for wine!

Local winery

We had a little time to enjoy watching the birds at the feeders outside their gift shop. After the program we had come to hear we also had time for a walk around the property to look for more birds.

Red Winged Blackbirds

The program Road Scholar had arranged for us was about raptors. The two presenters were Blake and Vickie Hatfield from Fontenelle Forest Raptor Recovery. They brought 4 birds that they care for that can’t be released back into the wild because of their injuries.

Blake and Vickie from Raptor Recovery

First bird was a Kestrel, sometimes called a Sparrow Hawk. His name is Jack Sparrow. Blake and Vickie get calls about injured birds and then they go and carefully capture them. Their role in the organization is to stabilize the birds and then transfer them to the Raptor Recovery Center. The goal of the organization is to release as many of the birds as possible back into the wild, but sometimes the injuries wouldn’t allow the bird to care for itself back in the wild.

Jack Sparrow, Kestrel

Next was a Red Tailed Hawk. I learned that there are regional differences between Red Tailed Hawks. The ones in the Great Plains are called Kriders and their feathers are lighter than ones in other areas. Cimmaron is probably a Kriders, but they are certain.

Cimmaron, Red Tailed Hawk

Oberon is a Great Horned Owl. Loved seeing how how far he can turn his head. It was also interesting to see his eyes up close - amazing.

Oberon, Great Horned Owl

The last bird we got to meet was Sun Dance, a Turkey Vulture. While not a true raptor, they still care for him. He has imprinted on Vickie and Blake because they got him when he was young.