Photograph by Jeff Carney on 3/8/2025
Hey all,
On Saturday, 3/8/2025, we estimated 583,000 +/- 76,000 Sandhill Cranes between Chapman and Overton, NE. This is more than 11 times the number of cranes we saw last week and is a perfect representation of why we don’t try to guess when peak numbers will be! This is a record for week 4 with the previous record being in 2021, right around 460,000. In fact, these numbers beat out all but one year (2020) for week 5 as well. In 2021, during week 4, most birds were concentrated in the east between Philips and Alda, NE (67%). This year is more evenly spread out through the river valley. Most cranes are still concentrated in the eastern segments of the river. However, the river over by Rowe Sanctuary had more than 4 times the number of cranes than average for this week of the migration! The birds that arrived this last week will likely stay here for 2-3 more weeks and we have seen many new arrivals come in today. The 15,000 wintering cranes are likely to be gone or leaving soon. However, 15k is a drop in the bucket, comparatively, and we will likely still see an increase on the next flight.
Till next time,
Bethany
