Look Behind You … Cranes!

16 January 2025

Last week I heard there were more than 100 sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) at the Volant Strip Grasslands (plus short-eared owls) so on Sunday morning, 12 January, Debbie Kalbfleisch and I drove up to Lawrence County.

On Rt 19 just north of Jackson School Road I could see them from the passenger window. From Black Road we had the same view as Glenn Koppel’s photo taken later that same day. Woo hoo! 116!

I was glad there was snow on the ground because these tall gray birds show up easily against white but can be hard to see in brown vegetation.

Sandhill cranes partially hidden in brown vegetation (photo by Chuck Tague)

Fifteen years ago there was no snow when I went to up north find them, again in Lawrence County. I thought I’d struck out until …

Sandhill cranes in Lawrence County, 2013 (photo by Cris Hamilton)

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