| Cranes once rare
now winter in Louisiana By Jay V. Huner Journal Correspondent |
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| Fall brings geese to the
piney woods. Snow Geese sound a bit like yapping dogs.
Greater White-fronted Geese have a more melodic call that
reminds me of "toodle toodle loo". At any time
of day or night you may hear flocks of geese passing from
mid-October through early March. Listening to them pass
helps pass time on a deer stand. But, sometimes folks in
southwest, central and northeast Louisiana can hear a
very odd goose-like call, a deep rolling trumpet sound
with an unusual trill. Upon looking up, you'll see huge,
odd gray birds with long legs and long necks. If the
birds are low or can be viewed with binoculars, a number,
the adults, may have brilliant red foreheads and white
cheeks. With wing spans of 6 feet or so and similar body
lengths, they are impossible to miss. Nope, the birds are crosses between herons and geese, they are Sandhill Cranes, close relatives of the endangered Whooping Cranes. Cranes have been in the news lately as Louisiana wildlife officials are attempting to get the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a permanent Whooping Crane population in southwest Louisiana. This would promote expansion of the population of these rare birds. Whooping Crane numbers have yet to reach 1,000 since the dim days of the 1930's when fewer than 40 still existed in North America. If you wish to see wild Whooping Cranes now, you have to go to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Port Aransas, Texas during the fall and winter. Sandhill Cranes were rare in Louisiana 15-20 years ago but as many as 3,000 winter in the state. The largest flocks are found well away from the piney woods around Holmwood and adjacent to the piney woods central Louisiana in Cheneyville, Avoyelles, and Natchitoches areas. A small flock apparently winters in the West Carroll Parish area. Sandhill Cranes are divided into two major subspecies - Greater Sandhill Crane and Lesser Sandhill Crane. Most, if not all, birds wintering in Louisiana are Greater Sandhill Cranes. Sandhill Cranes, most likely lesser, nested in Louisiana during historic times but no nesting has been reported in over 75 years. Sandhill Cranes are birds of open country. They are omnivorous birds. In Louisiana, they feed heavily on nuts edge corms and spike sedge tubers and grain, especially corn, left in fields. And, woe be it to a mouse, rat, or on warm winter days a frog or snake that a crane happens upon! Most cranes including Sandhill Cranes roost in shallow, standing water. In Louisiana, they favor flooded ricefields for roosting. Their bodies are adapted to tolerating very cold water and roosting in water makes it very difficult for predators to sneak up on them while they are sleeping or resting. Sandhill Cranes practice a form of flying called soaring. Like pelicans, storks, vultures, hawks and eagles, cranes can use their wings to catch rising air currents called thermals to climb effortlessly high into the sky. Once they have reached maximum height, all soaring birds can then glide very long distances to land or catch another rising thermal. Google Sandhill Crane on your computer or at your nearby library. Check the voice option and see if you've heard Sandhill Cranes but didn't know that was what you heard. You'll never forget the unique call. And, if you're in the Cheneyville area sometime in the November-February period, you can look for cranes and enjoy some good food at LeCompte's world famous Lea's Restaurant. [This article could not have been written without information supplied by Steven Cardiff (Revision to Louisiana Birds), Hubert Hurvey, Joseph McGowan, and E. V. "Tiny" Moore.] Jay V. Huner |
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