Arrival

by Stephen Schwiesow

Title

Arrival

Artist

Stephen Schwiesow

Medium

Photograph - Color Photography

Description

The sandhill cranes annually migrate from the south and rest alongside the Platte River in central Nebraska on their way to the northern US and Canada. It is such a wonderful sight to see. The early arrivals settle in the first part of March and the latter arrivals leave mid-April.

As I live within a couple of hours of this area, which amounts to an eighty-mile section of the Platte, I get a chance to visit. The total arrivals vary from year to year, but generally number in the hundreds of thousands. This year's estimate across the 80-mile stretch was 500,000. Unfortunately, many of the cranes settle in several areas, and those areas have public blinds on the River for observation. And also unfortunately, this current Covid pandemic has closed the blinds. Ergo, there are no close places where the concentrations usually settle.

I am sitting by a bridge several miles from Rowe Sanctuary, where most of the cranes settle. The cranes fly in to the river where it is safe from predators such as foxes, coyotes, eagles; they do this in the evening when the sun is setting. They start leaving at daybreak and head to surrounding cornfields to gain food for their remaining trip.

They arrived in the Rowe area around 7:30, and around 8:00 pm into our area. They were approximately 350-400 yards from our location, and the sun was setting quickly. I had a 600mm lens to get these photos.

Uploaded

March 23rd, 2021

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Viewed 80 Times  -  Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/22/2024 at 11:52 AM

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