• About
  • The Colors of Snow

Dancing Bird Studio

~ Art and Nature in Wisconsin

Dancing Bird Studio

Tag Archives: staging

Fall Migration for Sandhills

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by Darcy in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

migration, Sandhill Cranes, Sauk County, staging

Image
Each fall during migration, large flocks of Sandhill Cranes congregate in agricultural fields to glean waste grain. Nearby wetlands, including sandbars on the Wisconsin River, provide safe roost areas for the night. Sandhills are generalists – adapting to a variety of situations for feeding, nesting and roosting. They are more tolerant of human disturbance than our other North American crane species, the Whooping Crane. In rural Sauk County, observing these sizeable flocks from the car is of little consequence to the birds.
Image
Juvenile Sandhills (above) lack the bright red head of the adults.
Image
In an average year the cranes have moved on by mid to late November, but in 2011, Ted and a friend counted more than 5,000 Sandhill Cranes during the Audubon Christmas bird count in December as they flew in to roost on the Wisconsin River.

Photos by Ted Thousand. All rights reserved.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Dancing Bird Studio
    • Join 74 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Dancing Bird Studio
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar