Hobbies And Interests
Range and Habitat
Three subspecies of crane migrate from their breeding grounds in northern North America to the southern United States and Mexico, where they winter. Three smaller nonmigratory subspecies exist in the southern United States and Cuba. Sandhills prefer wetland environments; although, they have adapted to other habitats as well. They can be found in prairie and cultivated farm fields as well bogs, pine savannahs and sedge meadows. Sandhills are omnivorous, eating a wide variety of plant and small animal life.
Northern Movement
According to MSNBC, the sandhill crane has moved its southern winter grounds 40 miles north in the past 40 years. The bird is now a common year-round resident in Kentucky and Tennessee, where it was once only a migrant. Migrant birds are protected from hunting, but year-round residents are not, and the report indicates that these two states have debated whether to allow sportsmen to hunt the cranes.
Threats to Migration Routes
The majority of the sandhill crane population migrates through the Midwest. The birds rely on wetlands throughout this route to rest and feed. There are many potholes and wetlands drying up in the Midwest because of climate change, according to the Defenders of Wildlife. "As these small, shallow water bodies shrink, so goes breeding and migration stopover habitat for dozens of species of ducks and geese, as well as cranes, frogs,and invertebrates." This loss of habitat threatens both the crane, and its source of food on its migration route.
Platte River Changes
The Platte River has the largest congregation of sandhill cranes in the spring. Nearly the entire Midwestern population of these giant birds filter through Kearney, Nebraska. Gary Krapu, biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, has studied the sandhill cranes along the Platte River since 1977. He outlined scientists concern in his 2008 report on the subject. He has noticed "after encroachment of woody vegetation on river channels in the central Platte River Valley led to concerns that declining flows in the Central Platte may be adversely affecting midcontinent populations of sandhill cranes." This reduction in flow is related to reduced spring floods and long-term climate change, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A loss of this important migration route for sandhill cranes has birders and scientists alarmed.