The cranes have landed

January 18, 2013

Sandhill Cranes at Santa Fe Lake in Sweetwater (Photo by Melissa Winslow)

At Santa Fe Lake in Sweetwater this week were a swoop of Sandhill Cranes. Hundreds of the birds could be seen in the water.
Sandhill Cranes breed from Siberia and Alaska east across Canada to the Hudson Bay and to western Ontario, with isolated populations in the Rocky Mountains, northern prairies, Great Lakes and in Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. They spend their winters in California, and from Arizona to Florida.
They prefer marshes, prairie ponds and marshy tundra. They are also found on prairies and grain fields during migration.
They have a slow downstroke and a rapid and jerky upstroke. They fly in a V or a straight line formation.
Last year, the cranes landed in an open field in Roscoe.