Platte River Sandhill Crane Migration

Sandhill cranes migrating from wintering grounds in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico to breeding grounds as far as Siberia stop on this stretch of the Platte for several weeks to feed on waste corn and build fat reserves - the numbers now given are around a million birds, on roughly eighty kilometres of river, which is the great majority of the world population of the species concentrated in one place. They roost standing in the shallow braided channel overnight for safety and fly out to the fields at dawn. Viewing is from blinds run by the Rowe Sanctuary and the Crane Trust, booked well ahead, entered before light and left after the birds go. The river has been heavily altered by upstream water use, which is the ongoing threat.

The landscape

• Around a million cranes - most of the world population, in one place.
• Roosting in the braided channel - standing in shallow water overnight.
• Dawn fly-out to the fields - the reason blinds start before light.
• A river altered by upstream use - the long-term threat to the stopover.

When to go

Late February to early April; peak is usually mid to late March. Two days.

Things to know

Blind reservations sell out months ahead. You sit in an unheated blind before dawn in a Nebraska March - it is cold. Silence and no flash are required. Numbers vary through the season and weather affects the fly-out.

Nearby

Kearney is west; Grand Island is east.