# sandhill cranes?



## boutdun (Nov 6, 2010)

Saw what I think were sandhill cranes last week in a pasture out nead Winn,anyone else see any? do they fly thru this area? Can't figure out what they were if not cranes,very long legs


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## bucko12pt (Dec 9, 2004)

Very likely they were sandhill cranes. Last summer we had 13 of them at our camp in Kalkaska Co. and they did nest and had little ones. I see and hear them in the summer all over northern Mich these days.

I stopped over for a couple days in Kearney Nebraska 
last week and there were literally hundreds of thousands of them along the Platte River. Never seen anything like it. We drove around the farms fields north and south of the river and the picked corn and bean fields had thousands of them feeding. Along side I 80 from Kearney to Grand Island (30-40 miles or so) 
the fields were full of them. We stopped along the 
Platte two different evenings and the sky was black with them flying back to the river to roost.

There are supposed to be approx 500K (90% of the population in the world) of them feeding along the Platte in March. I swear we saw 400K of them.:yikes:

Definitely a sight to see.


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## Crowhunter (Aug 27, 2005)

I think they have a season on them in Texas , lots of them in Lake County .Bud


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## LSSUfishmaster (Aug 4, 2008)

We get thousands of them up here in the eastern U.P. in the fall and spring. Ive seen fields absolutely full of them and most of the marshes and bogs around here will have a breeding pair or two in the summer.


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## 2PawsRiver (Aug 4, 2002)

Had a had full flying around our area on Saturday.


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## PrtyMolusk (Aug 13, 2000)

Howdy-

'Ours' were back a couple of weeks ago....


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## Fins (Jan 28, 2004)

A flock of maybe 150 - 200 or so flew over Tecumseh the other day heading north.


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## CAPT HEAVY (Nov 4, 2002)

I heard them while steelhead fishing here in NE MI.


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## jimbo (Dec 29, 2007)

are they the birds that "purrs like an oak tree" ?


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## MAttt (Dec 15, 2004)

Been seeing them for a couple of weeks now.


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## boutdun (Nov 6, 2010)

dems da birds I saw


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## toto (Feb 16, 2000)

yep definately sand hills. Cool birds, see them a lot down here this time of year.


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## Mister ED (Apr 3, 2006)

bucko12pt said:


> There are supposed to be approx 500K (90% of the population in the world) of them feeding along the Platte in March. I swear we saw 400K of them.:yikes:


 That is where they gto their name. That area of central & western Nebraska is called the ' Nebraska Sand Hills'.


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## gooseboy (Jul 11, 2008)

they are also nicknamed the "flying filet minon"...


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## Airoh (Jan 19, 2000)

Need to open a season on them here. They are everywhere.


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## bucko12pt (Dec 9, 2004)

Airoh said:


> Need to open a season on them here. They are everywhere.


Nah, lets wait until they are eating themselves out of house and home, like the snows, then think about a season on them.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

Naw, Lets let every state around us open a season on them first then we will let the public vote on it. Michigan should be nicknamed the "stupid state".


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## Anish (Mar 6, 2009)

Saw two out in a corn field this morning. I know, only two but, that is a big deal around here. When I lived in Fenton a few years back, out towards Linden, I used to see hoge flocks of them in alot of the corn fields. Now, when we have a flock of 6 or 7 fly over it's a huge deal :lol:.
There is one cool thing up here though, not too far from where I live there is an area where they nest and you can watch them "dance" without disturbing them. Pretty cool :coolgleam.


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