When certain species of wildlife are in a precarious position numbers-wise, one of the leading causes of their descent into a troubling population status is usually habitat loss.
If the domain they count on for nesting, protection from predators, food, and raising their young is diminished, a downward slide often follows.
Such was the case with the sandhill crane, a tall bird with a bulky body and a distinctive bustle – a bunching or clumping of the feathers that cover the tail when the crane has its wings folded in.
These birds have long necks and a small head and a long straight bill. Sandhill cranes are about four feet tall with a six-foot wing span and weigh 10-12 pounds. Female cranes usually lay two eggs on a large, elevated ground nest, with the young cranes, or colts, flying within two months after hatching.
Sandhill cranes became increasingly rare early in the 20th century due to the loss of their preferred wetland and marsh habitat, and unregulated hunting, according to Ohio Division of Wildlife biologist Laura Kearns. These cranes were extirpated from Ohio until they returned to Wayne County in northeast Ohio about 35 years ago, and their numbers have been rising slowly since then.
In a recent survey of the sandhill crane population in the Buckeye State, volunteers in the 2023 Midwest Crane Count reported seeing 357 sandhill cranes, the highest total in the three years the study has been underway.
The survey organizers from the Division of Wildlife, the International Crane Foundation, and the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative focused the count on 30 counties where the nesting habitat cranes use is more common. The survey force was called on to search crane habitat within a 10-square-mile survey block, and they encountered cranes in 24 of the pre-selected counties.
Lucas County came in with the second-highest total of sandhill cranes, with 77 observed. Wayne County, home to prime nesting habitat in Killbuck Marsh and Funk Bottoms wildlife areas, had the highest number in the crane count with 96, while Geauga County was third with 63, followed by Ottawa (18), Logan (15), and Williams (15).
Kearns said that in Lucas and Ottawa counties, the best crane habitat and crane viewing can be found at Howard Marsh Metropark, Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. She said preserving, protecting, and restoring habitat has played a major role in bringing sandhill cranes back.
“In Ohio, I think wetland protections and restoration have been key to their growth,” Kearns said. “We see them breeding in protected and restored wetlands throughout the state. But sandhill cranes have been recovering and expanding throughout the Midwest in the last several decades, and some of the growth in Ohio is a result of this regional expansion of the eastern population of sandhill cranes.”
These wading birds are usually gray-feathered, sometimes with a touch of rust tone, and they have a distinctive red patch on their foreheads. They are rich in ritual, with rolling bugle calls, exotic dancing, jumping, and extending their wings all part of their mating display. They breed in the wetlands of the northern U.S. and Canada, and sandhill cranes migrate south, wintering in Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida. Sandhill crane populations in the northern tier of the western U.S. winter in Arizona, California, Mexico, and New Mexico.
“Sandhills start returning to Ohio mid-February to mid-March, but with the milder winters we’ve been having, sometimes they never really leave the state,” Kearns said.
She added that the sandhill cranes that remain here over the winter will congregate at Ottawa NWR, Funk Bottoms and Killbuck Wildlife Area in Wayne County, and Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area in Trumbull County.
“Otherwise, they often leave in November and December, depending on weather conditions,” she said. “Interestingly, when we had that severe cold snap around Christmas in 2022, many people reported migrating sandhills the following week.”
Kearns said the results of the 2023 sandhill crane survey represent good news as the population of this endangered species expands.
“The recent count is just part of an ongoing trend of seeing sandhill crane numbers increasing over the past couple of decades,” she said. “Anytime we see stable or increasing numbers, it is encouraging.”
Sandhill cranes are one of the oldest bird species, having been around for about 2.5 million years, and they also possess one of the coolest scientific names: Antigone canadensis.
Antigone, a princess and the daughter of Oedipus in Greek mythology, was a figure in the works of Sophocles where she was portrayed as a strong and loyal woman. (Sandhill cranes mate for life.)
First Published June 5, 2023, 4:58 p.m.
