Today was the 2008 International Crane Foundation Crane Count and we were positioned in a wonderful location known as Moody Marsh. We began our count at 5:30 in the morning, a perfect time for birdsong, especially during migration.
Moody Marsh (taken with the video camera)
Our first birds were a group of Northern Shovelers that were not pleased to be disturbed and took off in annoyance. As we settled in for our two-hour count, we were delighted to hear Soras and American Bittern. Of course, we were supposed to be counting cranes and there were plenty to count!
Sandhill Cranes
The goal was to determine how many pairs of Sandhill Cranes were “unison” calling. We heard six pairs, a pretty good number for our area. In all, we saw or heard 40 cranes.
Sandhill Cranes
We spent the rest of the morning birding which we’ll talk about tomorrow!!
I love the crane mating dances. 🙂 Cool that you saw so many. We don’t typically have them here, but I heard a pair were spotted in the area last week.