For Al Hansen. Sandhill cranes

collusion or invasion? There are a lot of other species that travel from Russia to the USA, among the waterfowl are Northern Pintails, Wrangel Island Snow geese, some of the eiders, swans and probably brant. We do have a bilateral treaty with Russia to protect migratory birds. We also have one with Japan in addition to Mexico and Canada.
 
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That looks to be a very tight migration. How many cranes are in that wintering population? Alabama just got a Sandhill season this year. 600 people were drawn. You have to pass a Whooping Crane ID test before you get your permit.

Eric
 
Hi Brad,\
That made my day. I happen to appreciate that bird but have only shot them with my Canon! Tim has always told me that he prefers calling them flying sirloins! Thanks so much for that map. I'm glad you talked about the other birds, also. I was living here in New Mexico when they did that pintail study with Texas, I believe. Every day I got home from teaching I would rush to my computer and see where the pintails decided to stay over for a while on their migration north. Most of the pintails got to Alaska with some of them crossing the Bering Sea into Siberia. I have to admit that I was totally wrapped on into that program. It was very interesting.
Al

Brad, do these sandhill cranes normally stop at the North Platte in Nebraska?

Back in 1967 I happened to be in the Denver Jonas Bros. taxidermy receiving shop with my first Dall sheep. While there the manager of the shop, Darrell Farmen, introduced me to Slim Moore who was one of the original big game guides in Alaska back when it was a Territory. We were talking about sandhill cranes with a biologist from the Anchorage Fish and Game office when Slim told us how darn good they tasted. That is when the biologist said something like, I don't remember ever having a season on them. All Slim could say with a smile was how darn good they tasted!
 
Brad, in the last status report on Central Flyway sandhill cranes, the authors mentioned a planned estimation model restructuring effort to better capture all sub-populations that contribute to the flock's total number in an effort to better understand natality versus hunting mortality. How are these sub-populations estimated? Do you use Russian supplied data? Is all observation data standardized?
 
Eric, your cranes are part of the eastern population. They breed across Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Ontario. That population has been growing steadily for 40 years and seasons have been started in Kentucky and Tennessee prior to yours. Yes the whooping crane test is necessary, even though they are white and sandhill cranes are gray. Some shooters seem to have trouble differentiating between the 2 species.

The Russian birds are mixing with the Mid-continent population which is a mixture of birds from across Canada and Alaska. They migrate through Saskatchewan, North Dakota, the Platte River and then winter from New Mexico to Texas. If you've never seen the cranes roosting on the Platte River in Nebraska, you have missed a wonderful experience.
 
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Al

Those are Ribeye of the Sky but Tim can call them whatever he wants because I'm sure he has taken his share of them.

Yep, all of your cranes, most of your snow geese, pintails, mallards and everything else stage during migration on the Platte. Its a sight to behold.

Alaska has had seasons on cranes for years. I'd have to dig into the regulations to find out the specifics. Reminds me of a story of mine from when I was collecting tundra swans in North Carolina in 1983. They hadn't been legally harvested there since 1918. I was collecting them under a research permit but I regularly had women from the community tell me how they made fine table fare for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. They must be good if they could remember what they tasted like 65 years before.
 
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Rick, I'd have to pull up and read the report but who has time to do that when they are retired? Or call the authors and talk to them.

For years, the subpopulation were delineated by doing visual counts and photo flights. Cranes were assigned to subpopulations by physical size. Efforts have been underway for a long time trying to accurately measure the subpopulations and their vital rates. Cranes have been the focus of much of the non-waterfowl research grants that are available but there aren't nearly enough funds to answer all the questions about the webless game birds.

I am fairly confident the data is entirely collected by US and maybe Canadian managers. I am not aware of any Russian research program on cranes.

There are a few more management populations of cranes out there too. The Pacific Coast population that breeds in coastal Alaska and Canada and migrates to Washing, Oregon and California during the winter. Then the Central Valley population that breeds in eastern Oregon and Washington and winters in the Central Valley. The Rocky Mountain Population that breeds throughout the inter-mountain valleys of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado and they all winter in New Mexico with some of the Mid-Continent population. And then the tiny Lower Colorado River population that breed in terminal wetlands of eastern Nevada and winters along the Colorado in Arizona and California. I suspect that all of these "populations" were contiguous previously and that they became isolated during the last century or two.
 
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Thanks, Brad, I have an ulterior motive. I met with our newly appointed MDNR Director, Dan Eichinger, at a meet-and-greet with the UP Winter Habitat Work Group, prior the Natural Resources Commission meeting held at NMU's new conference facility. Essentially, we have a loose agreement that will put establishing sandhill cranes as a game species up for an NRC vote in a year or so. From there, the Region 1 Wildlife Division director and his adjutant ( an avid waterfowler) Bill Scullion will help me spearhead an initiative to establish an experimental season for the greater sandhills that make up our eastern population, at two to three sites( Rudyard area in the eastern U.P. and Jackson county in southern peninsula) in Michigan.
The principal push-back from the birding community and anti-hunter consortium that has occurred in any previous discussions when legislators have initiated any discussions of sandhill hunting as an offset to depredation in these areas within Michigan has largely centered on the disparity between natality estimates and annual mortality values for the Central Flyway population, that is currently being hunted.

Two ommissions from your summary: 1.) Minnesota has a hunting season for greater sandhills in the Eastern Population. 2.) Florida contains a non-migratory sandhill population as well.

Here is a picture of a pair of florida birds at the Orlando Dollar Store, trying to pick-up some paper plates.

They eat VERY well! We have hunted them in NoDak since the 1990s. I smoke them with apple or mesquite, roast them, grill them rare, etc. The breasts are a mild dark meat. Legs and thighs are best directed to making jerky.

View attachment 002.JPG

View attachment Shopping sandhills.jpeg

I have seen whooping cranes twice, both times flying, while out in NoDak. Initially, I thought that they just looked white from the sun reflecting off them, but I pulled over and grabbed the binoculars to get a good look...and they were white. They were in a kettle migrating across country. I found them north of Ryder and followed them for a number of miles as they drifted on the updrafts southeast, since I was headed down to check a pheasant spot out down by Max.
 
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Actually, Minnesota's crane season is in the northwest part of the State, which has been shown to be part of the mid-continent population. We've been hunting cranes here for a number of years. There has been some telemetry work to determine where the watershed is between mid-continent and Eastern cranes lies.
 
There is also a very small disjunct resident population in coastal Mississippi that sometimes visits Mobile County in Alabama as well.

The ones here in Florida seem to have adapted very well to all us humans, not unusual to see them in yards, highway medians, around storm water ponds, etc..
 
"I wasn't trying to fully delineate every population of sandhill crane"

Are you sure you're a biologist? Such incomplete data....


[;)]
 
Carl said:
"I wasn't trying to fully delineate every population of sandhill crane"

Are you sure you're a biologist? Such incomplete data....


[;)]


Hahaha. Yeah a retired biologist that moved up to administration. Guilty.
 
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