Watching the Cranes at Haehnle
Watching the Cranes at Haehnle
The peak of the season is late October to mid-November and the peak time is the hour before sunset. This is when thousands of cranes can be seen entering the marsh area.
After spending the day feeding on waste grain in nearby fields, the cranes return in late afternoon to their night roosting site. Over the horizon come long skeins, flock after flock, with slow deliberate wing beats they head for the safety of Haehnle. Once over the marsh they begin their descent, first gliding, then slipping wind and finally lowering their gangly legs until gently touching down in the shallow waters of the Mud Lake Marsh.
Often their arrival is announced with calls of gar-ooo-a-a long before reaching Haehnle. This is only the prelude, because as more and more cranes arrive the marsh erupts with a cacophony of cranes trumpeting until darkness signals the cessation of calling and the last cranes have settled in for the night.
The Greater Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis tabida) is found from the Great Lakes to the west coast - a few are now even found in New England.
Description
Height: 4 feet (tallest bird in Michigan)
Wing Span: 6 feet
Weight: males 12 lbs., female 9 ½ lbs.
Coloration: Body is mousy gray with white cheeks and red forehead. They purposely rub iron rich soil and vegetation on their newly molted feathers staining them a rusty brown color. The rusty brown coloration helps with protective coloration during nesting. Juvenile cranes lack the red forehead. Both male and females have similar plumage.
Food
A wide variety of plants and animals are eaten including snails, crayfish, worms, mice, birds, frogs, snakes, insects, acorns, roots, seeds, berries, but seldom fish. They are very fond of waste grains following the harvest of corn, wheat, and barley. They can cause crop damage to newly planted corn.
Voice
The trumpet-like resonating gar-ooo-a-a call [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Grus_canadensis_Denali_National_Park.ogg] can be heard for over a mile depending on the wind. This loud, penetrating call is produced by a remarkably long 4-foot windpipe. The neck is only 2 feet long. To accommodate the extra length, the windpipe forms a loop next to the breastbone before attaching to the lungs. Juvenile birds have a much lower-pitched call which wounds like a squeak. Listen for it while the cranes come in, especially when there is a group of three in the fall. One of them is likely to be this season’s colt.
(Voice file from Nation Park Service, recorded in Denali NP)
-Longevity
Average life expectancy is 7 years.
Potential to live 20 to 30 years. A Siberian Crane lived to 82 years.
-Courtship
Cranes are considered the most accomplished dancers in the animal kingdom. They bow, bounce into the air as high as 20 feet, flap their wings, toss sticks into the air or jump about on stiff legs. Dancing performs several important functions, especially forming and maintaining pair bonds.
-Nesting
First nesting is usually delayed until 4 years old.
Adult breeders maintain long-term pair bonds, but they will “divorce” especially if the first attempt at reproduction is unsuccessful.
Nesting territories range from 10 to 200 acres. Between 5 and 7 pair nest at Haehnle.
Nests are located in emergent vegetation e.g. cattails, sedges, and rushes in shallow water.
Nests are “soggy haystacks” constructed of vegetation pulled from the surrounding area into a mound. Usually 2-3 feet in diameter and 3-5 inches above the water.
Nesting begins early in April
Normally 2 eggs are laid one or two days apart. Eggs are about 4” x 2 1/2”.
Both parents incubate the eggs.
Incubation begins as soon as the first egg is laid and lasts 30 days.
-Young
Young, called “colts”, hatch 1 or 2 days apart.
Asynchronous incubation pattern and aggressive behavior often results in one of the young being lost shortly after hatching.
Young grow very rapidly gaining 10% of their body weigh each day.
Young can fly when 2 ½ months old.
Young remain with parents for 9–10 months.
Late in the summer, Sandhills abandon their nesting territories and aggressive behavior and flock to staging areas such as Haehnle. Staging areas typically provide abundant food, protected night roosting sites and the benefits of congregating in flocks during migration. Here the routes and traditions of older, experienced birds can be passed on to less experienced individuals.
Cranes from southern Michigan migrate to Florida. Depending on the weather, most leave in November, but some have stayed through December. They usually return to Michigan in late February or early March. Sandhill prefer to migrate when the sun causes warming thermals to rise and there is a tail wind. By taking advantage of tail winds, flying in formation and by soaring, they are able to reduce energy expenditure by up to 30%. Flying at speeds up to 50 miles per hour, they can cover nearly 500 miles a day. Often they reach altitudes of over a mile.
1931 survey of southern Michigan – 17 pairs
1986 survey Lower Peninsula – 630 pairs, over 200 pairs in Jackson County, and about 4,000 cranes statewide
2002 Great Lakes population is estimated to exceed 36,000 cranes, 10,000 in Michigan
2011 Eastern Population was 72,000 cranes including 20,000 cranes in Michigan.
2023 **************** [get latest USFS survey data and link report]
Cranes fly with their necks extended and legs trailing behind. They have rapid upward wing beats and slower deliberate downstrokes. Sandhills never stand in trees. Herons fly with heads tucked back on their shoulders in an “S”, and have slow upstrokes and downstrokes. Early Linnean taxonomy placed cranes in the Ardea genus. Cranes are now classified in 4 genus in the Gruidae family.
SandhillCrane.jpg)
(Sandhill Crane lithograph, after Buffon, c. 1790, Steve Jerant)
Sandhill Cranes hold the record as the oldest living bird species. A fossil wing bone of a Sandhill was found in the Nebraskan deposit dating back 9 million years. Fossils from other members of the order Gruiformes, which cranes belong to, date back some 60 million years at a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
International Crane Foundation https://savingcranes.org/
Wikipedia entry for Sandhill crane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhill_crane#
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