Subject: Sandhill Cranes and Tundra Swans
Date: Mar 13 22:56:25 2000
From: Hill - hill at cbnn.net


Debbie-

What you heard may have been propane cannons that are used to haze geese from alfalfa and winter wheat fields. Large flocks of geese can munch quite a bit of forage, and during the spring farmers cannot use hunting to keep geese off their crops. Sandhill Cranes usually will not eat green browse as geese do, but will feed in harvested grain fields.

As an update, you all know the cranes are back. The Crane Festival is only 11 days away. Andy Stepniewski's Wahluke Slope field trip is sold out, but there might be spaces in some of the others, maybe even the Sage Grouse field trip. We are adding more space on the Columbia NWR tours both Friday and Sunday. There are 13 crane viewing busses this year, including Friday evening and Sunday morning. One of Steve Herman's peregrines might still be flying when he comes over for his falconry talk and display. George Archibald is back, Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, Mike Denny, Bill LaFramboise all talking about birds near and far. There will be lots to do and see. Visit the website at www.othello-wa.com, or contact a real moving keyboard at othello at othello-wa.com for status of the bus or field trip you might want to go on.

This weekend we had at least one Cackling Canada Goose mixed in with lessers, and either yesterday or today a Turkey Vulture (Diann take note) was flying over Crab Creek between Corfu and the Adams County line along highway 26. I saw a Prairie Falcon along highway 17 at the Adams/Grant County line on Saturday. The goldfinches at my feeder are starting to get back breeding colors, flickers are noisy, the doves, gulls and robins are "thick" around town, and (unfortunately) the crow population that became established in the 1990s is increasing (boring.) By next weekend we will have things well scouted for field trips.

Randy Hill
Othello
hill at cbnn.net

----- Original Message -----
From: Debbie Feinman
To: Tweeters
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 9:16 PM
Subject: Sandhill Cranes and Tundra Swans


On Sunday, March 12th, a friend and I ventured over to Othello in search of cranes. At around 10:00am, we found about 200 SANDHILL CRANES in a grass field just south of Lower Crab Creek where the South Crab Creek road intersects Highway 26. After observing the cranes from the car for about 5 minutes, a gunshot was fired from a nearby home. This caused the cranes to take off noisily, and eventually they settled in a grassy field on the other side of the road. Oddly, a second gunshot was fired, this time from the north side of the road, but it did not startle the birds. I have no idea as to why the shots were fired; we certainly were not on private land.

KESTRELS were abundant, hanging out on telephone wires.

We spent the rest of the day in the Columbia Wildlife Refuge and were treated to the songs of many MEADOWLARKS. We also noted several large groups of ducks consisting primarily of AMERICAN WIDGEONS, NORTHERN PINTAILS, LESSER SCAUPS, COMMON GOLDENEYES, MALLARDS, a few BUFFLEHEADS, a few REDHEADS, and one CANVASBACK. We also saw a few beavers.

Around 5:30pm we found a group of at least 30 TUNDRA SWANS in a small pond in the Frenchman Hills Wasteway.

At dusk, while stopped at Dobson and 7th, we heard the sounds of approaching SANDHILL CRANES. Over the next 5 minutes or so, several large V-formations of cranes flew overhead going North. The birds were an incredible site against the fuchsia sky; we estimated that 400 cranes passed over our heads.


Debbie Feinman
dfeinman at micron.net
North Bend, WA