The machinery? No, the bird of course!
On October 11 my housemates and I journeyed to Baker Sanctuary, an hour or so from Kalamazoo. There we sat and watched the sky for over an hour as the sun drew closer to the horizon. Why? To see the sandhill cranes fly in to roost.
Bernard W. Baker Sanctuary is an 898 acre piece of property owned by the Michigan Audubon Society dedicated to the protection of sandhill cranes. It was the first sanctuary in the country created for a crane species. The sanctuary every year hosts several breeding pairs in the spring and thousands in the fall as they journey southward.
Towards sunset Abigail, Chelsey, and I began to hear a great ruckus from beyond a hill to our right. Cranes were creating a cacophany of sound but we couldn't see them yet. For several minutes we waited as the sound grew closer. Finally, hundreds of cranes appeared over the hill. The arrivals honked at the cranes already in the marsh while those previously settled honked back saying it was safe. In groups of ten and twenty the prehistoric looking birds circled around for the best place to land. as each group settled the marsh began to quiet again.
On October 28 Abigail, Chelsey, and I had another crane adventure as we volunteered for the annual crane count. All of Michigan was split into territories to be covered by teams or individuals to count the cranes they see roosting. The count had to take place between the 27th and the 29th in order to be relatively sure no one was counting the same birds twice.
Before dusk the three of us drove around our zone seeking foraging and nesting grounds. We found approximately 150 sandhill cranes among the harvested corn fields. Knowing how many are foraging gave us a number to expect when counting the roosts.
We parked near two marshes in the middle of our survey area to sit and wait. As before there were only a few at first but as the sun fell below the horizon over one hundred appeared flying in. With the three of us at various posts counting in the growing dark our numbers became fairly rough. After some debate and last minute estimations while becoming too dark to see we came to the number of 170 sandhill cranes in our survey area.
On October 11 my housemates and I journeyed to Baker Sanctuary, an hour or so from Kalamazoo. There we sat and watched the sky for over an hour as the sun drew closer to the horizon. Why? To see the sandhill cranes fly in to roost.
Bernard W. Baker Sanctuary is an 898 acre piece of property owned by the Michigan Audubon Society dedicated to the protection of sandhill cranes. It was the first sanctuary in the country created for a crane species. The sanctuary every year hosts several breeding pairs in the spring and thousands in the fall as they journey southward.
Towards sunset Abigail, Chelsey, and I began to hear a great ruckus from beyond a hill to our right. Cranes were creating a cacophany of sound but we couldn't see them yet. For several minutes we waited as the sound grew closer. Finally, hundreds of cranes appeared over the hill. The arrivals honked at the cranes already in the marsh while those previously settled honked back saying it was safe. In groups of ten and twenty the prehistoric looking birds circled around for the best place to land. as each group settled the marsh began to quiet again.
Sandhill cranes at Baker Sanctuary - Bellevue, Michigan
On October 28 Abigail, Chelsey, and I had another crane adventure as we volunteered for the annual crane count. All of Michigan was split into territories to be covered by teams or individuals to count the cranes they see roosting. The count had to take place between the 27th and the 29th in order to be relatively sure no one was counting the same birds twice.
Before dusk the three of us drove around our zone seeking foraging and nesting grounds. We found approximately 150 sandhill cranes among the harvested corn fields. Knowing how many are foraging gave us a number to expect when counting the roosts.
We parked near two marshes in the middle of our survey area to sit and wait. As before there were only a few at first but as the sun fell below the horizon over one hundred appeared flying in. With the three of us at various posts counting in the growing dark our numbers became fairly rough. After some debate and last minute estimations while becoming too dark to see we came to the number of 170 sandhill cranes in our survey area.
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