2025 Bird Thread (Eagles, Sandhill Cranes, Etc)

[Brad]

Welcome to the 2025 Bird Thread (Eagles, Sandhill Cranes, Etc)

Saw a half dozen or so eagles over at Manawa today.

Here's one of them.

1.

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[thenewguy]

Today driving home on 80 over the river,a bald eagle flew up from a tree over the interstate. It was super close, and you just don't appreciate how big they are until they are 15 feet above your windshield

[Brad]

The crane trust said that 10k-15k Sandhill cranes spent the winter in Nebraska and that more have already returned from down south.

I would assume their first official crane count will come out next week or the week after.

[almighty_tuna]

Wow, crane counts already! I keep telling myself one of these years I'll head out to get some new photos. It's probably been ten years since I've photographed the cranes.

[Brad]

Just had a Bald Eagle flying north along the Papio Creek in the 109th and West Dodge Road area. Usually I see at least 1 ever winter in this area.

[Louie]

There was one circling over Dundee and Elmwood Park yesterday.

[Brad]

While they put out numbers last week, week 3 was the first time they were able to do a flight.

Week 3 of 2025 Spring Crane Migration

On Thursday, 2/27/2025, we estimated 50,000 +/- 5,000 Sandhill Cranes between Chapman and Overton, NE. A majority of the cranes were between Highway 281 and Alda Rd. bridge. However, around 7,000 were seen east, over by Philips, NE. These numbers are very different from last year’s migration during week 3. 2024 was a very early migration with record breaking numbers of cranes early in the season. By this time last year, we already had 272,000 cranes around the Central Platte. This year’s numbers are fairly average, if not slightly below.

More info in the link.

[Brad]

There was one circling over Dundee and Elmwood Park yesterday.

Just driving by Memorial Park right now and the bald eagle was flying north over Memorial Park.

[Brad]

Week 4 of 2025 Spring Crane Migration

https://www.cranetrust.org/week-4-of-20 ... migration/

On Saturday, 3/8/2025, we estimated 583,000 +/- 76,000 Sandhill Cranes between Chapman and Overton, NE. This is more than 11 times the number of cranes we saw last week and is a perfect representation of why we don’t try to guess when peak numbers will be!

More info in the link

[Brad]

An all time record crane count is out, 736,000 cranes.

Their blog with more details will come out later today.

According to my spreadsheet, in the past decade (2016-2025), they have only had a count above 500k four times, and above 600k twice, and never a 700k.

[skinzfan23]

Any idea why there are so many more this year?

[Brad]

Any idea why there are so many more this year?

I'm sure they will have thoughts on that when their blog comes out today. My two cents, The season started slow, which usually leads to larger numbers around week 5. Also a quick flip from winter to spring, I'm guessing more migrated at one time, once they finally started migrating. Weeks one and two had 30k to 50k, which is about the number that stay here all winter according to the crane trust, so really they didn't start migrating until week 3.

[skinzfan23]

I drove through Nebraska to Denver at this time 2 years ago and it was a pretty cool sight to see all the cranes along the interstate.

[Brad]

Week 5 of 2025 Spring Crane Migration

https://www.cranetrust.org/week-5-of-20 ... migration/

Alright y’all, this is a big one! On Monday, 3/17/2025, we estimated 736,000 +/- 55,000 Sandhill Cranes between Chapman and Overton, NE. Do I dare even say that I am confident this was a decent undercount? Monday morning thousands of birds left the river early and were seen flying north over the interstate to go feed before our plane flew over the area. Cranes in these northern fields are often the most difficult to spot as we can confidently survey within about 3km of the river. However, to the north a lot of this buffer zone is taken up by I-80. This is a known limitation of our survey method and we use our data as a “systematic undercount” of the population on the Central Platte River Valley.

[Brad]

Week 6 of 2025 Spring Crane Migration

705,000

Another big count in the books on Tuesday, the 25th! 705,000 +/- 193,000 Sandhill Cranes within the Central Platte River Valley (CPRV) between Chapman and Overton, NE. Still very high numbers for this far into the season! However, because we have accumulated these large numbers across the river there are many birds just waiting for the right conditions to move on up North. Yesterday through Friday look to have very favorable winds for migration so we will see a decrease in numbers on our next flight.

More info in the link:
https://www.cranetrust.org/week-6-of-20 ... migration/

[Brad]

Week 8 of 2025 Spring Crane Migration

391,000

More info in the link:
https://www.cranetrust.org/week-8-of-20 ... migration/

While we were unable to sneak in a week 7 survey, we completed an early week 8 count on the 3 rd of April. Between Overton and Chapman we estimate 391,000 +/- 190,000 Sandhill Cranes around the Platte River. There were favorable migration days this past week so many cranes left, especially in the east. The majority of cranes (~75%) are now found west of Shelton. The next few days have winds forecasted from the north so these birds are likely to stick around over the weekend into next week. While overall numbers are on the decline, there are still huge flocks of cranes in the 80 miles we survey. Many of these cranes, especially around Kearney, were in groups of 10,000 seen both in the river and in the fields early in the morning!

[Brad]

I went through Manawa today a little before noon and there were American White Pelicans everywhere. Told a friend who went there a few hours later and he said there were zero!

[Brad]

Week 9 of 2025 Spring Crane Migration

35,500

More info in the link:
https://www.cranetrust.org/week-9-of-20 ... migration/

Today we estimated 35,500 +/- 9,700 Sandhill Cranes between Overton and Chapman, NE. The vast majority are hanging out between Gibbon and Highway 10 to Minden. We expect a lot to move on today and tomorrow with strong winds from the south forecasted. These winds will make their migration north much more managable as they rely on thermals and favorable winds to conserve energy. There may be a few stragglers left next week but also wouldn’t be surprised if all of them moved on by the next and last flight of the season.

[Brad]

Week 10 of 2025 Spring Crane Migration

Zero Cranes

[Brad]

One of the sandhill cranes that the Crane Trusts tracks went all the way to Russia this summer. It made it back and is now in eastern New Mexico. 7000+ miles!



Here is the video that was posted before that one, which shows a has a little more info:

[Brad]

Crane Trust has started doing fall Sandhill Crane counts this year.

Week 1 = Zero
Week 2 = 1,500 cranes and 7 Whooping Cranes
Week 3 = 21,200 and 4 Whooping Cranes

[Brad]

Crane Trust has started doing fall Sandhill Crane counts this year.

Week 1 = Zero
Week 2 = 1,500 cranes and 7 Whooping Cranes
Week 3 = 21,200 and 4 Whooping Cranes

And apparently now doing winter counts too.

Winter Week 1 = 28,500

HOT OFF THE PRESS! Early this morning (Tuesday, December 2), our science team conducted an aerial flight survey. Lead Biologist Bethany Ostrom and Wildlife Biologist Elsa Forsberg recorded approximately 28,500 Sandhill Cranes (+/– 2,600) along an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River between Overton and Chapman.

You may notice the survey name has changed to “Winter” as we will now continue surveying every other week throughout the winter, as long as Sandhill Cranes remain in the area.

[Brad]

I went to Manawa today. Lake was 100% frozen and there were zero eagles.

I talked to someone that wend down to Mound City to the Loess Bluffs National Wildlife refuge yesterday. He said there were 250 Bald Eagles there!