Hey all!
It’s January 22, 2026, and we still have 35,000 +/- 5,000 Sandhill Cranes on the Platte River! We completed our last winter survey for the 2025/2026 winter season Wednesday morning (Jan 21 st ). Between all of our surveys this winter we’ve had nearly the same estimate since November. Most of the surveys the cranes have all been roosting just east of the Alda rd viewing deck which makes it very difficult to obtain quality photos to calculate a more precise error estimate.
This is the most cranes to have overwintered in Nebraska in recorded history! Why? Most likely due to the unseasonably warm winter conditions. Forage is plentiful and not covered by snow and the river has continued to provide safe and ideal roosting habitat. The cranes that have stayed have figured out that they didn’t need to expend all the extra energy to migrate further south if fairly ideal weather conditions are as far north as the Platte. These conditions are very similar to last winter when we had the previous record of overwintering cranes in Nebraskaof 17,000 +/- 3,000. Before then the largest group to have overwintered was 5,000 in 2011/2012. Prior to 2011/2012, overwintering cranes were an extreme rarity. Nebraska’s climate is shifting and is predicted to continue to shift to warmer and wetter winters but with more extreme weather events. More details and evidence are in Nebraska’s 2024 Climate Report (https://nsco.unl.edu/2024-nebraska-climate-assessment/). This makes the hypothesis that the CPRV will only increase in popularity as a wintering location highly probable. We don’t know the full affects of this shift in behavior on the landscape and resource availability for spring migrants as we are experiencing something new and learning as it happens.
There are some bitterly cold days predicted this weekend which has the possibility of moving some cranes around but if they move south they will run into a massive winter storm. Given that they are well adapted for cold and their food resources will likely remain uncovered by snow they probably won’t be going anywhere till they decide to move north with the new spring migrants in just over a month.
We will be back to flying with our regular spring counts in mid-February. Thousands of “Valen- cranes” are coming our way soon!
Till then,
Forsbird & The Crane Counter
(Elsa Forsberg-Wildlife Biologist & Bethany Ostrom-Lead Biologist)