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On the Wings of Cranes

eaglesandowls816

One of the most breathtaking sights on the upper Texas coast in winter is the flocks of Sandhill Cranes. These trumpeting avian performers spread across our region into stubble fields and wetlands. Cranes have a long symbolic history with humans, representing long life, happiness, youth, and peace, and they are a common theme in haiku and origami. Despite this admiration, ten of the world's fifteen crane species are threatened with extinction. Threats to many species include wetland habitat degradation, collisions with power lines, illegal hunting, habitat loss, human disturbance, and more.

Besides our coastal Texas habitats, the Sandhills are renowned for their gatherings in Bosque del Apache in New Mexico and at the Rowe Sanctuary on the Platte River in Nebraska.

Alan Bartels, a volunteer at the Rowe Sanctuary, expressed what we all feel when we see their large flocks return in winter:

"To see the wonder on people's faces, their emotional outpouring at seeing the cranes, and to experience their genuine gratitude has helped me realize that cranes are here for people on a physical but also spiritual level. I cannot say what each person thinks, but for me, the cranes represent the possibility that there is at least, in one small segment of central Nebraska, something that mankind has not totally destroyed...yet."

A daytrip to Galveston Island, Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge or the grasslands of the Katy prairie region should be enough to let you glimpse at these spectacular birds before they head north to their breeding grounds in Canada and our far northern states.



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