Field Notes sandhill cranes
~ by Jim Eagleman
At first, it’ s a distant sound, way off, like a muffled churning— some call it a rolling trumpet.
By habit I scan the sky as sounds get closer. Soon, sounds become calls and help point to a distant V. It may be separate, or at times combine with other Vs overhead. I call that a bonus. Once I read that migrating geese and ducks fly in V formation and it’ s always a female in the lead; I wonder if that’ s true here? It’ s cranes this time, not waterfowl. I try counting as they spread across the sky. I listen and watch.
These elegant, long-legged, long-necked migrators are sandhill cranes, and they grace our Brown County skies twice a year. Like other migrating visitors, I watch and listen for arrival in spring, and a fall departure. The call is haunting, ancient. The sandhill is a bird that has been around since the Pleistocene. Dating back two million years in the fossil record, cranes and their relatives may have flown over and fed in similar habitats as they do today.
Their name refers to their choice range like the Platte River, on the edge of the Nebraska sandhills. On the Great Plains, cranes frequent these traditional feeding and staging areas. It’ s estimated that except for New England, cranes are found throughout all other states. Their numbers have increased due to large ag fields with waste grains, protected sandbars, and noted mating success. Pairs tend to mate for life
and stay with their mates for two or more decades. Their varied diet consists of vertebrates, small mammals, snails, and weed seeds. Corn is a common food used to fuel long distances. Social groups feed throughout the night with bills probing the ground. A brown stain on chest feathers is sometimes evident. In northern Indiana counties, cranes stick their bills in the muck of iron rich wetlands, then preen their feathers leaving a rusty orange color. My friend and colleague, Fred Wooley, a“ north woods naturalist,” says he has been fooled more than once when he sees that color moving through a Steuben County fen. He first thinks deer, only to focus closer on a sandhill.
While their graceful flight is most impressive, I’ ve seen these birds up close. There’ s more to watch. They stand about three feet high, with a general body length of 60 inches, and an estimated weight at ten pounds. The crimsoncolored cap is barely visible at a distance, but it may be the first thing I notice. In the flock, a few flap their wings while I walk closely. My field guide said their wingspan is about 75 inches, or six feet plus. The long, pointed black bill and red forehead contrasts against white cheeks. I marvel at their beauty, but it’ s their stamina, an inherent ritual, that amaze.
Sandhills migrate through Indiana and some breed in our northern counties. During migration,
58 Our Brown County • March / April 2025