Fossil records indicate sandhill cranes have been part of springtime here for perhaps 10 million years. Weather dictates when the cranes arrive in this part of the state. As winter eases, the cranes show up. Our first flocks appeared in late February this year, and more arrive daily. The number of cranes in the area should peak within the next couple of weeks.
Weather also dictates how long the cranes stay.
If harsh weather lies between here and their breeding grounds, they stay here until it passes. May. One radio tracking study found that the average sandhill crane's stay in Nebraska is 26 to 32 days long. Between 500,000 and 600,000 cranes will journey through Nebraska on their way to nesting sites in the Northwest Territories of Canada as well as Alaska and Siberia. Before the migration is complete, about 150,000 to 175,000 cranes will settle on the landscape between the rivers just west of North Platte. The nourishment they find here helps them complete their journey and breed successfully season in the High Arctic.