I confess-I love cranes. Greaters, lessers, and all sizes in between. Ever since Pam and I met Fred and Terry Wlodarski in San Antonio, New Mexico to celebrate the Festival of the Cranes a few years ago, I have loved cranes. Sandhill Cranes, in particular, are flourishing. Bosque del Apache, the host site for the festival, attracts about 5000 Sandhill Cranes from November through mid-February. On Valentine's Day they depart. Rowe Audubon Sanctuary in Gibbon, Nebraska, attracts 500,000 Sandhill Cranes during the month of March. These birds use the shallows of the Platte River as a staging area before heading north to their breeding grounds. What a sight. This enormous collection of cranes can be viewed in season on the sanctuary's webcam. For access to the webcam as well as lots of crane lore visit Rowe's website at http://www.rowesanctuary.org/.But Sandhill Cranes are strictly western birds, right? Wrong! For the past 4-5 years a pair of Sandhill Cranes has been living and breeding in the marsh at Bristol (VT) Pond, also known as Lake Winona. I won't get into naming controversies, but when I mentioned Lake Winona to a local Bristolian, he became exercised and assured me in no uncertain terms that the proper name was Bristol Pond. Evidently, a local politician had attempted to link his name to the lake to achieve immortality. Locals will have none of it, so Bristol Pond it is.
I have visited Bristol Pond off and on since the early 1970's, mostly to fish. The lake, pond, whatever, is well known as a good spot for small, but plentiful Northern Pike and occasionally bass. Larger fish are caught on occasion, too. I was impressed early on by the number of ducks at the pond, too-especially Wood Ducks, Mallards, and Hooded Mergansers, not to mention the occasional flocks of Canada Geese that drop in. On the opening day of duck hunting season the usual fusillade takes place and the waterfowl promptly depart. Not the cranes, though. Surprisingly, they hold on until late October or early November before migrating elsewhere.
But cranes in Vermont? Yes indeed. A few years ago I heard rumors of Sandhill Cranes inhabiting Bristol Pond off and on, though my attempts to find them proved futile. Locals kept the information to themselves, apparently, to avoid attracting unwanted attention to the breeding birds. That changed three years ago, when reports of successful breeding appeared on the VTBird list. Suddenly, there were regular reports of sightings of cranes in the marsh and the surrounding fields. With a little bit of help I was fortunate to spot them in both locations.
Last year, though, I saw only a single Sandhill Crane early in the season; then nothing. This year I spotted one crane that arrived in April; then nothing. I checked the marsh periodically in May and June without success until yesterday, August 1. Spurred on by a recent report on the VTBird list of an adult and a juvenile Sandhill Crane, I tried once more. Bingo. Without much difficulty I spotted three Sandhill Crane heads bobbing up and down in the marsh like so many Whack-a-Moles. It is possible that there are more cranes in the marsh beyond the ones that I counted. I'm no expert at crane identification, but I believe that I saw two adults and a juvenile. Breeding success! I visited the pond in the late afternoon, at a time of day when cranes typically feed in the surrounding corn fields. But no-today they were located in the marsh. Hopefully, my VTBird report will stimulate others to check out this magnificent avian species. At a time when many bird species are struggling, it is heartening to follow the success of this little colony of Sandhill Cranes breeding in the unlikely state of Vermont.
Photo by Bill Mayville.
