Sandhill crane numbers are building in Indiana

Each fall thousands of sandhill cranes stop for an extended stay at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, near Medaryville in Northwestern Indiana. When I lived in Goshen in the 1960s and ‘70s, we would try to see this spectacle at least once every November or early December. Numbers varied, but seeing 10,000 cranes in one day was not unusual. That is still true today.

In recent years sandhill cranes also have been gathering at another location much closer to Goshen. Today I drove west along U.S. Route 6 for about 45 minutes to check out the site. There are three marshes within a mile or so, surrounded by thousands of acres of corn and soybeans. Although it was hard to count the cranes packed closely together in the marshes, there were at least 3,000. Numbers probably will increase over the next several weeks. As always it was wonderful to see these stately birds and hear their “crane music."

November always brings lots of interesting birding reports. I especially enjoyed hearing about the group of birders who did a sky watch on Nov. 8 at a hawk-watch hill near Ragersville in Tuscarawas County. Over 1,280 tundra swans were counted, many of them calling as they flew over. In addition the birders saw 267 cormorants, 21 common loons, 29 Bonaparte’s gulls and over 15,000 blackbirds.

Other birds seen during the watch included four purple finches, 13 pine siskins, 150 American pipits, one peregrine falcon, six northern harriers, one rough-legged hawk, five bald eagles and three black vultures.

I didn’t get the exact date, but on a different day there was an excellent local loon flight with over 500 common loons and at least four red-throated loons heading south during their morning flight.

Up at Rocky River (Cleveland) on Nov. 13, Jen Brumfield found a Pacific loon, red-throated and common loons, scoters, and a pomarine jaeger. Other birders found all three species of scoters plus long-tailed duck along the Lake Erie shoreline east of Cleveland.

The calliope hummingbird that I wrote about last week was still present as of Nov. 14. At this time the property is no longer open for visitors. Many thanks to the wonderful hosting by the landowners over the last two weeks.

For more information, photos and a video, see the Facebook page called Delaware County OH — Calliope Hummingbird. A lot of interesting behavior is being documented about this western stray.

This week I had a chance to talk to Tuscarawas County birder Bennie Yoder. Many of us have been following his big year attempt, which has already resulted in a new record for the Bobolink Area. With red crossbill and red-throated loon in recent days, Bennie is now at 272 species for the year, all of this done by bike. This is the latest in a series of amazing biking big years by local birders in the last decade or so. What a great way to learn about birds and get a huge amount of exercise.

Correction from my column last week: The brant, which I said was found along Wilderness Road (Funk), was actually at Clark Road in the Killbuck Valley Wildlife Area. Sorry about that Su and Sue and any readers that were misled.

Good birding.

Contact Bruce Glick at birderbruce@yahoo.com or 330-317-7798.