Saturday afternoon we headed to Kearney, Nebraska with Jeanne and Steve. Our goal was to check out the Sandhill Cranes. The vast majority of Sandhills migrate through central Nebraska on their way to Canada, Alaska and Siberia. Estimates are around 500,000 cranes rest up near the Platte River in Kearney. They build up energy reserves to get them on their journey… they add about 40% of their body weight over a few weeks.
The Crane Trust has a nice visitor center, with lots of info and some absolutely amazing photos. And some rusty metallic bison and birds…
There are bison in the Trust, and while they seem docile enough, you are warned not to get too close. Steve is not quite as close as it looks here…
Bridges take you across the river, and to a walking path along the far bank.
It is pretty now, but I think we need to return in the Spring when everything is green!
This old guy set up a wood carving display in the Visitor Center. (I can call him an old guy ‘cuz I’m one too.) (But not quite THAT old!) He said nothing is for sale – they are just to look at. He was giving little “5 minute owls” to kids. I had a good time talking to him about his work.
We were hoping to see Snow Geese in addition to the Sandhills… We drove around a while, and finally found a good sized group of Snow Geese. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the real camera on this trip, so all you get is iPhone pictures. Sigh.
As dusk approached, we went to a place right on the river where the Sandhills all come together to spend the night.
As the light dwindled, huge numbers of cranes arrived, landing on little sandbars in the river. They like to huddle together to stay warm at night, and being in the river makes them less likely to be dinner for a fox or whatnot. I was amazed that they kept packing onto one big sandbar, while another 20 feet away was just ignored. Finally, a few landed on the empty island, and that “broke the ice” and other birds joined them.
All the cranes seemed to prefer the eastern side of the bridge. When we looked west, we could watch the gorgeous sunset.
By Sunday, we still had a bit of snowdrift in our backyard. We figured grandkids would like to play in it before it melted clear away, and we were right. Peter made a bit of a tunnel, which he enjoyed crawling through.
Here’s a little video of Peter in his tunnel… it looks like he was a sitting duck for flying snowballs. Notice the snowball stopped mid-flight at the end of the video!
P.S. Last week we had a HUGE blizzard. This week we had a couple of days in the high 70’s, and one day hit 81 degrees. We saw these four kids enjoying the warm sunny day on the roof!
