Sandhill Cranes Landing

We spent last night in Tombstone, Arizona--a well-preserved town of the old west. In the morning we drove some 25 miles further southeast, to Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area. It includes an area of wetlands, which in winter attract many species of birds, including huge numbers of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis).

As we arrived, there were at least a thousand cranes gathered in one of the smaller ponds. Small groups arrived more or less continually-including this one, which is well into its descent, while others would fly off. A flyer provided information on last winter--the number of cranes in the general area reached over 33,000 in January 2010 (they begin arriving in October).

We have otherwise seen these cranes mainly at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, where numbers average 15,000 in mid-winter. (A few dozen images from our visit there in 2004 are here, featuring not only cranes but also snow geese.)

Sandhill Cranes are found mainly in western and central North America, as well as extreme eastern Siberia. The other North American species is the whooping crane, which nearly disappeared in the 20th century but is gradually recovering. There are thirteen other crane species elsewhere in the world.