Hey all,
On Monday the 6 th , we estimated at least 15,000 ± 2,000 Sandhill Cranes between Chapman and Overton NE. The season is definitely wrapping up. From this year’s plateau at half a million cranes surrounding week 5, we’ve experienced a very rapid drop in abundance on the Central Platte. The largest roosts on the river are between Gibbon and Highway 10/Minden. Only one of our 16 GPS tracked cranes is still in Nebraska. The majority of these birds have been hanging around in South Dakota, exchanging a warm spring for an Easter snow.
The average for this time of year for the last 10 years is just under 70,000 which is much closer to last week’s estimate (60,800). This hot, dry start of spring brought the cranes early and pushed them north early. The entire season has been a week ahead of normal. Which isn’t necessarily surprising if we think back to winter when we had more cranes overwinter (35,000) than we do normally during week 1. We’ve received much needed moisture in the last week so the remaining cranes might be more comfortable in their last few days before moving north. Winds don’t look super favorable in the coming days for migration. The next southerly wind in the forecast also brings rain this weekend, so we’ll see if these few thousand stick around for the week 9 survey early next week.
Till next week,
Bethany Ostrom
Lead Biologist