News : BCC Trip to see Sandhill Cranes a success

At the end of March, we partnered with Buchanan & Bremer County Conservation to witness the incredible migration of sandhill cranes and prairie chickens in their booming grounds, known as a lek. We traveled the 8 hours to North Platte, NE and spent 3 days learning all about these incredible birds.

On the lek, we saw a total of 12 prairie chickens, 8 males and 4 females. The males put on an incredible show! These males gave it their all trying to be the most dominate male. They cooed, hooted, whooped, drummed, and hollered while bowing, stomping, side stepping, raising and lowering their tail feathers. It's a site to see. The most dominate male will likely be the only one who will mate with all the females so there's a lot at stake! While on the lek, we also saw many burrowing owls, prairie dogs, horned larks, western meadow larks, and a northern harrier!

In the evening, we traveled to a spot on the North Platte River where we watched the sunset, and the sandhill cranes slowly move in. The bugle calls of the cranes slowly got louder, until we were surrounded by a cacophony of calls. These birds seek refuge on the shallow and wide river to roost in high numbers at night and come morning, they disperse into the surrounding fields to gorge on grain waste and rodents. We were able to witness them leave the next day at sunrise, as well as them gathering in their staging area before dispersing into the fields.

A very special thank you to all our participants for joining us, our wonderful tour guides with Dusty Trails and Golden Spike Tower, and Bill from Hawkeye Stages for getting us there and back safely. We can't wait for the next one!