By Warren Gartner
Aaron and Olivia Coon from New Whiteland cut crane silhouettes from their Outdoor Indiana
crane template (left). Aaron stretches out his paper plate spiral (right).
E each fall thousands of sandhill cranes and even a few endangered whooping cranes gather in northwestern Indiana at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area (FWA) before continuing their journey south.
The meeting looks and sounds like a big family gathering. These large birds go through a series of bows and leaps, “dancing” with one another and rebuilding family ties.
The cranes’ congregation comes after spending the summer nesting and raising their young in some of the Great Lakes-area states and Canadian provinces.
Jasper-Pulaski is an ideal place for these creatures to rest and feed. The land is part of the once-huge Kankakee Marsh. At one time, the marsh was more than 10 miles wide and covered some 500,000 acres. Back then, the area was one of the largest marsh-swamp basins in the United States; however, the waterway was gradually straightened (or “channelized”) and much of the marsh was drained.
Today, about 30,000 acres of the original marsh are left. This area provides the birds with food and shallow water as well as an area where they are safer from predators at night.
An observation tower at Jasper-Pulaski provides great views of these birds. All visitors, except picnickers, are required to check in at the office before proceeding to the observation area.
Another FWA, Goose Pond in southern Indiana, is fast becoming another spot to see sandhill cranes.
When a sedge (group) of cranes continues south, the birds use an energy-saving behavior for the long trip. The cranes find an area of warm air rising up from a parking lot, building or some other warm spot. They circle over the spot in the rising air (called a thermal), flying higher and higher. Eventually, at some level, they find an air current flowing in the direction they want to go. Then they glide with the airflow, making the journey easier.
If you can’t make it to either Jasper-Pulaski or Goose Pond, point your Web browser to: www.IN.gov/dnr/fishwild/publications/jasper.htm or www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/goosepond/ to learn more about these destinations.
Olivia hangs the finished migrating crane mobile (left). Sandhill cranes are
often heard, and then spotted, during the fall months flying south over
Indiana in high-flying V's or circles (right).
Listen to a large crane flock at: http://www.IN.gov/dnr/fishwild/publications/cranes.wav
