What’s That Trumpeting in the Sky?

When I first heard the loud rattling call of birds, I imagined for a second that I had been thrown back to a time when giant prehistoric beasts walked the earth. When I began to hear the sound of distant booming drums, I envisioned warriors dancing and chanting around a fire. The realization that the booming sound itself was emanating from a rusty old Honda Civic playing some obnoxious tunes reminded me again that it was 2011.

I had been out observing the spring migration of waterfowl when I heard the calls of not a few, but many Sandhill Cranes. Because the call of a Sandhill Crane can easily travel more than a mile if the conditions are right, it took me some time to find them.

I do not know how high a crane must fly for their expansive wingspans to appear as tiny dots in the sky, but that is where they were. While some flapped, others rode the thermals gaining altitude...rising and rising until they were mere specks, even with binoculars. Over the next quarter hour over 400 Sandhill Cranes flew northward over Racine County, trumpeting one of natures most distinctive untamed calls as the birds bid welcome to spring.

Until recently, this spectacle would have been unheard of. By the 1930’s, hunting and habitat destruction had reduced the Wisconsin population to 25 breeding pairs. In response to pleas from conservationists, both the state and federal governments began to preserve areas of land where wildlife and their habitat would be protected from exploitation. Refuges like Horicon (1927), Necedah (1939) and Crex Meadows (1946) were created with the hopes that future generations would enjoy the sights and sounds of birds like Sandhill Cranes.

As recently as the 1960’s, the only Sandhill Cranes nesting in our area were at the Tichigan Wildlife Area just north of Waterford. At that time not a single nesting pair had been recorded in Illinois or Indiana in nearly a century. Thankfully the population began to increase. As much as man would love to give himself all the credit for the recovery, the cranes also helped themselves. Slowly they adapted their own habits and behaviors and began to feed in agricultural fields, nest in smaller marshes and associate in areas closer to man. The Wisconsin population has since seen a four- to five-fold increase while Illinois celebrated their return as a nesting species in 1979 followed by nesting in Indiana in 1982.

Now is the time to be out enjoying the return of the cranes, to watch them soar high in the sky, to hear their call of the wild in an awe inspiring way, and to see their mating dance in the meadows, wetlands and fields of Racine County. I hope that as you do, you consider the fragility of nature, and how easily we could have lost this magnificent bird.