SANDHILL CRANES THRIVE IN THE NORTHWEST

Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) are among the more spectacular of North America's birds. They make up in large size, active behavior and impressive sounds what they lack in bright colors. Actually, they even have a bit of bright color, but what they really have going for them is numbers. Cranes gather in flocks, and the gatherings can be huge. In the Platte River valley of Nebraska in spring, up to one-half million cranes gather. This is a staging ground for their migration north to their arctic breeding grounds. Like geese, cranes remain in pairs and family groups and are intensely social.

They are not that common in the Pacific Northwest, but thousands of them migrate through the interior spring and fall, smaller numbers migrate up and down the coast and winter near the Lower Columbia River, and a few pairs breed in southern Washington and many more in the marshes of southern Oregon.

Sandhill Cranes are protected at national wildlife refuges much as waterfowl are, and their numbers are stable or increasing. The great majority are the small birds that have been called "Little Brown Crane." They breed in the Arctic and winter in the western states, but there are also breeding populations of larger migratory birds all across southern Canada and northern United States and resident populations in Mississippi, Florida, and Cuba.

With their long legs and neck and imposing red crowns, a pair of Sandhill Cranes present an impressive sight as they stride across open habitats. Throw in a few more, and they may interact with one another, especially in spring: jumping up in the air with open wings, grabbing bits of the substrate and throwing that up in the air as well. This is the famous crane dance, immortalized in Japanese paintings for centuries and perhaps the source of the extensive mythology surrounding these birds. All 15 species of cranes do it, and we get to see it in our Sandhills every year.

In the Northwest, the best place to see cranes in winter is at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and the surrounding open country in Washington and on Sauvie Island in Oregon. Large numbers are present feeding, roosting, and flying around. Flock after flock may pass overhead on their way between feeding and roosting grounds, their sonorous calls announcing their presence.

Cranes are true omnivores, with the predilection to eat just about anything found in the course of their foraging. Berries, seeds (including cultivated grains), and tubers make up the majority of their plant food, while insects, crayfish, amphibians, reptiles, and even small birds and mammals round out their animal diet. Nestling birds are a favorite, and open-country nesters such as Red-winged Blackbirds vigorously mob any cranes that come near their nest.

Migrant cranes can be seen in great numbers from late February to early May in the Columbia Basin, and a good time to visit is during the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival at Othello, WA (March 23-25 in 2012). Check their website for details. Similarly, cranes move through in large southbound numbers in September. During migration, you can see flocks high overhead soaring on thermals just like raptors do. In that way, cranes are very different from geese.

For nesting cranes, plan a trip to the refuges of southeastern Oregon in May and June. Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns has quite a few, and you can also see them in the fields around Burns. Much rarer as a nesting species in Washington, there are a dozen or two pairs at Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Trout Lake.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes will construct a big shallow nest in a marsh and incubate their two eggs for about a month. They defend the nest and subsequent young fiercely, flying at all avian and mammalian predators that appear anywhere nearby. After hatching, the young are led away from the nest to optimal areas for feeding, and the parents stay with them and feed them until they are able to fly at somewhat over two months of age. The young remain in a close bond with their parents until they are nine or ten months old, then may leave and join another flock.

Dennis Paulson

CRANES AND HERONS

Many people call the large, gray, long-necked and long-legged birds we see wading near shore “cranes.” But they are not. They are herons. The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is in the heron family (Ardeidae). It feeds by standing or slowly walking on its long legs, sighting prey, and then capturing it with a lightning-fast strike of the bill. The head is brought back and the prey swallowed, usually headfirst.

Prey that is not killed by the strike is manipulated in the bill for a time to dispatch it. Fish that have spines they can erect are thoroughly handled, so they are dead before they make the long journey down the esophagus. In some especially spiny prey species, the herons actually manage to break off the spines before they swallow the fish.

Although usually feeding in the water or at the waterside, the herons’ diet is not confined to fish. They feed on just about anything they can catch in the water, including frogs, salamanders, garter snakes, crayfish, and even large insects. They also spend much time foraging on land, especially in winter when surface fishes tend to go deeper. In the Pacific Northwest, voles are an important part of the diet, and it is commonplace to see the herons hunting in meadows and farmlands.

Foraging by herons is usually solitary, and they are quite territorial at that time, with long, sometimes noisy, chases when one gets too close to another. They also fly by themselves, but at high tides, sometimes several birds roost in the same tree or on the same sand bank, near one another. This heron is an adult, with characteristic black head plumes. Herons fly with their neck folded back. Their wings are very large, about the size of eagles that are many times their weight, and they allow the heron to fly very slowly and land in shallow water with scarcely a splash.

The other bird shown here is a true crane of the family Gruidae, quite unrelated to the herons. This Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) is only very rarely encountered near Puget Sound, although large numbers migrate through eastern Washington and many birds winter in the southwest corner of the state, especially in the Vancouver to Woodland area, where they can easily be seen in open fields and marshes.

Sandhill Cranes are gray, often tinged with brown, and have red naked skin on top of their head. Their long tertials (innermost flight feathers) hang over their rump and tail, giving them a quite different shape from that of a heron.

Cranes forage by walking slowly through their habitat, often a partially flooded meadow, with head forward. They watch for prey in front of them, which they grab suddenly and then swallow it. Although they eat some of the same things that herons do, for example small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, they take very few fish and many more insects, as they forage mostly on land. Herons eat no plants, but plants feature prominently in the diet of cranes, especially grains, berries, and the tubers of aquatic plants. As they do for geese and ducks, federal and state wildlife agencies manage refuges for cranes by planting grains.

Unlike the herons, cranes are often seen in flocks, sometimes large ones. They spread out somewhat to feed but return to their flocks to roost and to fly about the countryside. In flight, their wing beats are rapid and their neck is held out straight. A distant flock might be mistaken for a flock of geese, flying in a line or vee formation.

Dennis Paulson