Gene and Tweeters,

As far as I know, there are no Sandhill Cranes currently breeding on
Vancouver Island. (There used to be, but these small populations disappeared
many years ago, probably because of too much development and disturbance.)
However, there are fair numbers (hundreds?) of Sandhill Cranes that breed on
the Queen Charlotte Islands and on a couple of large islands on the central
mainland coast of BC. There are large areas of boggy habitats on the
Charlottes which are good habitat for breeding Sandhills. This is probably
the origin of most of the Sandhill Cranes seen in transit in western WA,
although some of them may come from farther north in Alaska.

As for the birds seen migrating over the Puget Sound area-- even if there
are only a few dozen in total, there are too many to all come from the
Greater Vancouver area. (We have probably only about 6 to 8 breeding pairs
in Pitt Meadows and Burns Bog.) We regularly see groups of up to 25 Sandhill
Cranes in late September along the west side of Burns Bog. It seems likely
that some of these cranes, as well as those seen migrating in the Puget
Sound area, are also from the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Of course, we don't know for sure where these birds are coming from unless
some of them are banded-- and I don't believe anyone has tried to do this.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net





-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Eugene and
Nancy Hunn
Sent: October-04-07 8:47 AM
To: Dianna Moore; Tweeters
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] re: Sandhill Cranes & Greater White-fronted geese

Tweets,

Re. Sandhill Cranes migrating. I understand there were a goodly number of
cranes counted some years ago when there was an organized hawk watch in fall

at Cape Flattery. I've noticed myself and there are numerous reports of
cranes overhead along a line from the outer coast near Pt. Grenville, down
the Humptulips, over the head of Grays Harbor, then over Raymond. I presume
these represent a regular movement from nesting areas on Vancouver Island or

further north along the coast to the wintering area in the Vancouver
Lake/Sauvie Island/Ridgefield area.

There seems to be a much smaller movement south over Seattle, perhaps from
the remnant breeding population at Pitt Meadows on the lower Fraser.

Gene Hunn
18476 47th Pl NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
enhunn323 at comcast.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dianna Moore" <dlmoor2 at coastaccess.com>
To: "Tweeters" <Tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 9:39 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] re: Sandhill Cranes & Greater White-fronted geese


> Hey Tweets....a fried of mine lives on the bluffs in Hoquiam overlooking
> the Bowerman Basin. He called me a few years ago and said there were
> approximately 300 Sandhill Cranes that had just come in over his home and
> settled on the mudflats below.
>
> I grabbed my scope and a friend and we got to see the birds...what a
> picture of contentment! Never having seen the large congregations along
> the Platte River or other stopovers, this was my first sighting of such a
> large group.
>
> Since then I have seen them migrating over my home in Ocean Shores, but no

> further large numbers on the ground.
>
> On another note, I saw 6 Greater White-fronted geese on the golf course
> behind the theatres here in Ocean Shores today.
> But no juncos have yet showed up in my yard. The Fox & Golden-crown
> Sparrows are back...about 2 weeks ago.
>
> Dianna Moore
> Ocean Shores, Wa.
> dlmoor2 at coastaccess.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

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