Rfalconcam Forum

I think I've mentioned this in several threads, but I attended the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico this past November.  This is a link to a video I shot of a large group of Sandhills at one of the cornfields in the refuge.  Growing corn would be a trick in the New Mexican desert, except that the Rio Grande runs along the refuge boundary, managed both agriculture and a managed wetland possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKzPgW1Y_PM

A couple of minor spats break out, both on the right-hand side of the video; in spite of crowded winter conditions, they get upset if somebody violates their personal space.  The long pan toward the end of the video was to illustrate just how many cranes are in this single cornfield.

We're still seeing the cranes migrating over Kentucky...lovely to hear their voices, since they chatter the entire time they're flying!

Blown away by the sheer numbers of cranes. I like the subtle, creaky sound, too.
How close were you? They aren't disturbed by people?
Very neat imagery to start my day with...thanks.

About all I can add is Wow!  Thanks, Patti!

I am a terrible judge of distance, but we weren't terribly close...my camera has a 12x zoom, and I think it was at full zoom.  During the festival they strategically mow some of the cornfields up fairly close to the road to bring the cranes a little closer to the tourists, but they do leave a comfortable buffer.  The cranes won't feed unless the corn has been "bumped" down or mowed because they can't see predators in high corn. 

The folks that taught my six-hour crane workshop were speculating that the cranes on this particular migratory path aren't subjected to much hunting, and therefore might not be as skittish around people as other populations that are hunted along their migration routes.

I love their voices as well...in my crane workshop they taught us to recognize the slightly different voices of the males, females, and juveniles (who sound more high-pitched, squeaky, and almost have a hoarse quality...more gooselike than cranelike).  On the rare occasions that I catch the cranes migrating over Kentucky, it's always the chattering call that alerts me.  It carries fairly well, too, sometimes I hear them but can't see them at home.  Last weekend during my run in the park I heard their call distinctly but never saw them; perhaps they were too high (my crane experts said they sometimes fly as far as a mile high), or perhaps I had too many hills and trees blocking the view.

Thanks for the video and all the information, Patti!!  What an amazing group of birds!  The sheer numbers are astonishing.  But the sound...that sound...  It's almost science fiction like...  Are you positive that they weren't functional robots?  They creak like something "other worldly"!  :rofl:  Very interesting!!

Anne in Toronto