Welcoming the Sandhill Cranes Back to California: Merced National Wildlife Refuge

It's always bittersweet when I see the last of the tropical migrants in our region. The orioles, the grosbeaks and the warblers head south when the temperatures start to drop a little bit. Life seems a bit less colorful. But that isn't the end of the story of course. It's getting a LOT colder in the far north, and millions upon millions of birds are leaving the tundra where they breed and spend the summer. The destination for a great many of them is the Great Valley of California, where the winters are mild, and food can be found that allows survival until the spring when they can again return north.

These millions of birds include many species of ducks and geese, but one of the most dramatic arrivals is that of the Sandhill Crane (Grus candensis). In the past few weeks thousands of them have arrived. I estimated that more than 1,500 of them were flying above us last week at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge. We were back today for another look, and many hundreds were lounging about in the early afternoon.

Although somewhat similar to herons and egrets, there are only two species of crane in the United States, the Sandhill and the Whooping. The Whooping Cranes have been at the edge of extinction, with only 21 individuals in the wild in 1940. Intense conservation efforts have enabled their population to grow to about 600 individuals. The Sandhill Cranes are doing much better, with a population of around 500,000. There are subspecies that are threatened. The Florida population has been decimated by habitat loss and numbers around 5,000 individuals. The Mississippi subspecies is even more endangered, with only 129 individuals in a single refuge. The Cuba subspecies has only 300 individuals.

The Sandhill Cranes have a call that I find soothing (others may disagree). The low-pitched trilling call reminds me of cats purring. The call can be heard over great distances, and flocks overhead may be almost out of sight, and still be heard clearly.

All three of our local refuges are populated with thousands of Sandhill Cranes right now. I've seen them at the now-open Beckwith Viewing Platform at the San Joaquin NWR west of Modesto, the San Luis NWR south of Turlock, and the Merced National Wildlife Refuge where we explored today. If you've never seen these grand birds before, you should check them out!