by Mary Merriman

One of the most spectacular birds in the world spends its winters right here in
Tulare County. At Pixley National Wildlife Refuge in the south county, between
4,000 and 6,000 Sandhill Cranes arrive in the Fall to feed in agricultural fields by
day and to shelter at night in the ponds at Pixley NWR. The ponds protect them
from predators like coyotes and bobcats. Every evening just after sunset, small
flocks of Sandhill Cranes begin to fly in until dozens or hundreds can be seen in
every direction. Their distinctive bugling calls can be heard for miles. They have
an elongated coiled trachea allowing their distinctive calls to travel long
distances. They are wary of humans, but will sometimes fly directly over the
platform at Pixley if visitors are standing quietly. During the day, they can be seen
in the distance feeding, often located most easily by rolling down the window and
listening for the bugles. These tall elegant birds are pale silvery-gray with a bright
red crown. Many have rusty coloring on the wings from preening in the red clays
of the north. Sandhill Cranes mate for life and perform mating dances, leaping
and flapping their wings facing each other, reinforcing old pair bonds. As they
come in for the night, their voices recall a primordial world. The oldest Sandhill
Crane fossils are at least two million years old.
Sandhill Cranes breed across Canada, parts of Alaska and some northern US
states. During breeding the pairs are widely separated, usually choosing a
marshy, isolated area and building an elevated nest of grasses. The young are
called “colts’ and stay with the parents the first winter. They migrate in fall at
altitudes as high as 20,000 ft and as much as 500 miles per day. In Spring about
500,000 congregate on the Platte River in Nebraska before heading to breeding
grounds in the North. The Lesser Sandhill Crane, a subspecies, can fly up to
5,000 miles from California to Alaska, across the Bering Strats to Siberia in
Spring. These populations are remaining stable.
There are 15 species of cranes worldwide and most of those are endangered.
The only other North American crane is the Whooping Crane. The pre-European
contact population is thought to be 15,000. This dropped to 23 birds in 1943.
After intensive recovery efforts, today there are 800 total. Sandhill Cranes were
used to “teach” young Whooping Cranes to migrate and save them from
extinction.
Pixley NWR had some flooding with our heavy rains and the land bridge over
Deer Creek is still flooded as well as the parking lot. However it can be
approached from the north on Road 88- a dirt road but passable in passenger
cars. Often Sandhill Cranes can be seen from this road and soon the platform
will also become accessible. Sandhill Cranes are also found at Merced NWR.
They will be migrating north by March 1