Refuge staff counted 4314 sandhill cranes leaving refuge roosts this morning, a new record! Counts are conducted weekly in October - last year's high count was 3900.
For anyone who would like to see cranes in the Sherburne area, they leave the roost sites just after sunrise - right now about 7:30 to 8:30 am is peak. They come back into the refuge in the evenings as the sun starts to set. Best places to watch are along County Road 3 and county road 70, at the northern and northwestern edges of the refuge. During the day, birds are foraging (mostly) in harvested corn fields. I see huge numbers of birds along Hwy. 95 in the afternoons when I'm headed home (3:30 to 4:30), with the largest concentrations this week being in the area of Hwy. 95 and Benton County 86. However, you can drive county and township roads around Duelm, Santiago, etc. and find many birds in fields as well. We have reached peak, I'm told, and it's expected birds will start heading for parts south shortly. The flights of birds are sure a sight to see - I never get tired of those prehistoric sounding calls and silhouettes painted against the warm colors of sunrise... And our snow bunting flock size has increased to 23 birds! Betsy Beneke Sherburne NWR ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
