Tonight, the Hahenle team participated in the annual US Fish & Wildlife Service crane count.  This helps to provide the USFWS with the best estimate of size and trend of the Eastern Population of Sandhill Cranes. 

Gary Siegrist ran solo tonight at Haehnle and saw just 13 flybys and no cranes roosting tonight.  He did get a Merlin as well as a Rail species! 

Ross Green and Lathe Claflin counted on Hawkins Road.  They had a busy end of night on their two sections and counted 725 cranes.  (Ross reports that there were 381 last night at Stony Lake in Napoleon). 

Ron Hoffman and I counted at Dalton Rd. overlooking the prison property to the west.  We had a lot of continuous activity with cranes coming into the wet area and also going out.  Our “outie” count was high at 817, but the cranes came pouring in during the last moments before it got dark.  We counted 1,975 coming in so netted 1,158 roosting in the wetland this evening.

We also saw hundreds of cranes feeding in the surrounding fields on Hawkins and Dalton Roads before we started to count.  Cranes are in the area, but with the high water in the Sanctuary our roosting numbers continue to be low.

Crane counters:    Gary Siegrist, Ross Green, Lathe Claflin, & Steve Jerant
Compiler:  Steve Jerant
Submitted by Steve Jerant

Crane Count:  0 (13 total observed)
Species count:  38

Trumpeter Swan 1

Wood Duck 6

Blue-winged Teal 7

Gadwall 8

American Wigeon 5

Mallard 120

American Black Duck 12

Green-winged Teal 3

Ring-necked Duck 135

Pied-billed Grebe 1

Mourning Dove 1

American Coot 123

Sandhill Crane 15

Northern Harrier 2

Bald Eagle 1

Red-tailed Hawk 1

Eastern Screech-Owl 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker 2

Downy Woodpecker 1

Hairy Woodpecker 1

Pileated Woodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 2

Merlin 1

Blue Jay 2

American Crow 2

European Starling 10

Eastern Bluebird 3

American Robin 12

Cedar Waxwing 55

House Sparrow 3

American Goldfinch 3

White-throated Sparrow 5

Song Sparrow 1

Lincoln's Sparrow 1

Swamp Sparrow 2

Red-winged Blackbird 135

Rusty Blackbird 2

Gary's eBird checklist available HERE 

You can view past postings and historical crane counting data on the Haehnle web site at http://www.haehnlesanctuary.org/crane-count