Birds and watchers flock to Platte Valley

Tuesday, April 1, 2003
Sandhill cranes perform their annual mating ritual during a stopover near Kearney. Bird watchers from around the country are flocking to the Platte Valley as well.

GIBBON (AP) -- The morning sun illuminates the Platte River, revealing thousands of Sandhill cranes crowded on sandbars.

The laugh-like calls of the tall, thin birds grow louder as more awaken. Some wade into the shallow water. Others dance, hopping with their long greyish-brown wings spread wide and their red-capped heads bobbing.

Suddenly the flock is spooked, perhaps by a bald eagle -- or an accidental flash from one many cameras. Tens of thousands of bird watchers visit south-central Nebraska each March to see the world's largest gathering of cranes.

"They're amazing," whispers Jim Rintoul, a retired Denver auto technician peering through binoculars pressed against his bifocals.

With more than 500,000 Sandhill cranes -- 90 percent of the world population -- covering an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River, it has one of the greatest concentrations of any animal species on Earth.

When the flock is frightened, every bird takes flight at once and the river appears to rise. Their calls become much louder and urgent as they swirl in formations, zigzagging across the cloudy sky for as far as the eye can see.

Rintoul and many of the 30 other people hiding in a wooden blind 150 yards downstream gasp with excitement.

Cranes have stopped here for millions of years on their northward spring migrations from wintering grounds more than 1,000 miles away in Mexico and states from Arizona to Mississippi.

The birds roost on the sandbars at night, then feast on grain, grubs, snails and frogs in nearby fields throughout the day.

They store up more than a pound and a half of fat -- about 40 percent of their body weight -- during their monthlong stay before heading for the tundra of northern Canada, Alaska or even Siberia.

"The cranes have a lot of learned behavior and its a cultural tradition for them to make this stop. It's kind of like spring breakers always going to Fort Lauderdale," said Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, avian ecologist for the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust.

Even more enticing to bird watchers is the possibility of spotting a whooping crane among the Sandhills.

Fewer than 200 whooping cranes live in the wild, and when they migrate through the area they rarely spend more than a night. On average, about eight to 10 whooping cranes are spotted along the Platte each spring.

"I didn't even know it was a big deal when I saw one standing in a ditch along the road. I didn't even take a picture," said Loretta Kubik, who happened to pull her car up alongside a whooping crane when she first moved to area about eight years ago.

The area's popularity among bird watchers took flight about 10 years ago, when local business groups started promoting the phenomenon. Local festivals and crane art exhibits now are coordinated around the peak of the migration.

"Local meat-and-potato business guys who are not bird watchers finally recognized that the cranes are unique and there was money to be made," said Allan Jenkins, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

A study conducted for the Environmental Protection Agency five years ago estimated that bird watchers spend $25 million to $30 million each spring in central Nebraska while visiting the cranes. Rooms are scarce at motels in nearby Kearney and Grand Island, where some see more guests in March than even during the busy summer travel months along Interstate 80.

The cranes are obvious to motorists along the highway that runs parallel to the Platte River, never veering more than 5 miles apart. They feed in corn fields within 20 yards of the interstate throughout the day. At sunset, rows of cranes blanket the sky to the horizon as they fly back to the river.

Stevie Staples of St. John's, Mich., has come to see the cranes each spring since 1992. For the past six years, she has spent about a month along the Platte, volunteering at the 1,248-acre Rowe Bird Sanctuary.

While hunted in most other states along their migration route, the cranes are protected in Nebraska. Most people here cringe when asked if they have ever eaten crane.

"Hunters from other states like to tease us, of course. We've had some people tell us that it tastes good," said Tricia Beem, a tourism official in Grand Island. "They call it the ribeye of the sky."

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