Sandhill Crane Migration at the Rowe Sanctuary

We arrived at the Rowe Sanctuary in Gibbon Nebraska well before dawn. The sanctuary staff took our group into the Audubon Center building to wait for everyone to arrive, where we watched their crane cam (in the dark) and listened to the cranes. When everyone was ready we were taken out to the blind. Our blind held about 15 people, and we each had our own viewing window. There was even a port-a-john attached to the blind if you needed it.

We were lucky, the sandhill cranes had spent the night within about 50 feet of our blind and they were still there when we arrived. They spend the night standing in shallow water making it hard for predators to sneak up on them. The cranes were making quite a bit of noise when we arrived. They started moving around as it got lighter, and they started leaving before dawn and all were gone shortly after dawn.

The lighting conditions (dark) made photography difficult, but the cranes were so close that I had to try. My first shot was about 10s ISO 400 f/5.6, but before the last of the birds disappeared I there was enough light for 1/500s ISO 250 f/8. I shoot with a Sony alpha 100 which doesn't perform well at high ISO. I always try to shoot at ISO 100, but I increased my ISO to 400 because of the light. You can see the noise caused by shooting at ISO 400.

Overall our stay in the Rowe Sanctuary blind was spectacular. The birds were much closer than most people will ever see, and they we saw many different behaviors before they left the river.