Raptor Resource Project FB Page
9 hrs
Escale [Stopover]:
https://nature365.tv/november-14-2016/We had to share this lovely Nature 365 video from Jim Brandenberg. The first birds to appear are cedar waxwings. The second birds are sandhill cranes. While this video was shot in the northern United States, more than 80% of the world?s population of sandhill cranes converge on Nebraska's Platte River valley - a critical sliver of threatened habitat in North America's Central Flyway. Along with them come millions of migrating ducks and geese. For more information, follow this link:
http://www.nebraskaflyway.com/the-spring-migration-of-the-?/I love sandhill cranes in part because of their beauty, and in part because their vocalizations always evoke a more primitive, wilder world for me. According to Wikipedia, the oldest unequivocal sandhill crane fossil is 2.5 million years old, which puts it into the Pleistocene era. This is about 1.5 million years older than the first bald eagle fossil, which appeared roughly 1 million years ago. Sandhill cranes echo an era filled with wildlife unknown to us outside the fossil record: North American horses, glyptodons, mastodons, dire wolves, scimitar cats, and sabertooth salmon, just to name a few. So much has changed, but bald eagles and sandhill cranes are still with us.
Nebraska Flyway - The Spring Migration of the Sandhill Cranes
http://www.nebraskaflyway.com/the-spring-migration-of-the-sandhill-cranes/