Several years in the past we made the trek from Iowa to Colorado to visit Lisa’s family during spring break. It was during those trips that we would notice the large number of birds in the barren corn fields and the throughout the sky in the middle of Nebraska. Google told us these were Sandhill Cranes in the midst of their migration north, but we never stopped to see more of the cranes in order to maximize the time spent with relatives.

Since Lisa and I arrived back early from wintering in Texas this year, we decided it would be a good opportunity to go see the cranes in all of their glory. We were not disappointed.

Note: I’m not going to go into a long description of the Sandhill Cranes themselves or why a portion of Nebraska is so popular of location for the migrating cranes. It is important to note, however, that all of the Sandhill Cranes wintering in the south funnel through the Grand Island-Kearney area before dispersing north into all of Canada for the summer. An hour glass is the best way to visualize it. Lastly, we weren’t able to get any close up photos of the cranes as all we had were our phones but we did have binoculars with us, which is a requirement when going to view the cranes.

Cats Stay at the Big House

Lisa and I discussed whether to take our Crane trip in Usain — which the cats, Primrose and Catnip, know as the “little house” — or take the car and leave the cats at home, a.k.a. the “big house”. We winterized Usain on our trip back from Texas. Since we’ll still get some nights below freezing for the next month or so we decided it would be a lot less hassle to take the car, spend a couple nights in a hotel in Nebraska, and leave Usain and the cats behind.

Our Crane Adventure Begins

As we made our way past Grand Island we began to see the familiar flocks of the grey-feathered birds in the fields and some in the air. Our first stop was to the Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center located about 30 miles east of Kearney.

A helpful worker inside the center provided us with a map of crane viewing areas and other information. We knew before hand that sunset was a great time for viewing, and given that it was late afternoon we decided to head on into Kearney to get our hotel room and something to eat. We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites just off of I-80 and ate supper at the Nebraska Ale Works – food was good and the sweet potato fries were amazing.

Sunset – A time to roost

We arrived at the Alda Viewing Site about 30 minutes before sunset. A group of people was gathering along the boardwalk and there were already literally hundreds of cranes on the far sandbar of the North Platte River with many more groups coming in to land. Binoculars are a must and fortunately we had remembered to bring our set. We were very lucky, as it was a beautiful evening — sweater weather — with a gorgeous sunset.

As one sandbar in the river would fill up, the cranes began landing at others close by. Eventually the shallow waters between the various sandbars would be inundated with cranes as well.

As the numbers increased, so did the sound volume. The loud chirping/warbling/bugling calls of the cranes was one of the best parts of the experience. You can hear them in this video I took with my iPhone.

Sunrise – A time to rise

After getting up quite early (for retired folks) the next day and enjoying the hotel’s complimentary breakfast, we arrived back at the Alda Viewing site about 30 minutes before sunrise. As we walked from the car to the viewing site we could hear the cranes long before we could see them. Apparently the sound of a single crane can be heard from 2.5 miles away. By now there were thousands more cranes populating the river than before we had left the previous evening when it had become too dark to see any more land. With the binoculars we were even able to spot a single Whooping Crane amongst all the other cranes. The larger, white crane was quite a contrast in a sea of grey.

As the sun began to appear and light spread across the river, we could see large groups of crane take to the sky again. They leave the safety of the water to feast on the corn left behind by the harvesters in the thousands of acres in this part of Nebraska. We again had fair weather and a beautiful sunrise to enjoy the experience.

Kearney – Sandhill Crane Capital of the World

After a nature walk back at the Crane Trust Nature Center, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and wait for the day to warm up a little more before venturing out again.

We had driven through Kearney’s Old Town the evening before and thought it looked like a nice area to walk around and get some steps in (as well as lunch). A unique feature of Old Town is the old timey brick streets, which is why the area is also called Downtown Kearney on the Bricks or just “The Bricks”.

A couple of the more interesting features of Old Town are:

• A former theatre that now houses a dental office.
• A former church that now is home to an Ob/Gyn office.
• An historic post office that is now an art center.

We stepped into Central Mercantile, an upscale kitchen store, and discovered that they serve food via a business within a business called Ktown Cakery. The menu looked good so we stayed for lunch, and it was an excellent decision on our part as our sandwiches were delicious. It must be a thing here in Nebraska for sandwiches to come with cookies as well.

Fiestas and Siestas Crane Style

After lunch we headed out onto the backroads to make stops at the various viewing areas marked on the map we were provided with at the nature center. We saw cranes eating, sleeping in a variety of positions, and even some doing the mating dance they are known for.

Visiting the Sanctuary then Home

The last stop of our crane experience was a quick walkthrough (it was almost closing time) of the Rowe Sanctuary Visitor Center. This is a brand new, beautiful facility that also has a nature walk path and bird viewing building, not just for cranes, but for many of the bird species found in Nebraska.

After leaving the center we headed home but kept our eyes open for the cranes along I-80 in both the fields and sky.