Sandhill Crane Hunt

As part of my Master Conservationist class, I need to complete 32 hours of conservation-related volunteering. I decided to kick that off last weekend by participating in the sandhill crane hunt up at Chichauqua Bottoms park in Elkhart. I dragged my  mom along with me since she is a morning person, likes birding, and I wanted a friend for our before-sunrise-meeting time. She and I were assigned to an area together, and my dad ended up coming along. There were only 8 volunteers set to cover a large amount of ground (which apparently was a "large" group, given that the last two years consisted of 1-2 volunteers).

We were taught how to listen for the varying calls of the cranes, and where we would expect to find them. After being extirpated years ago due to receding wetland habitat, the sandhill cranes are just now coming back to the restored wetlands at Chichaqua park. We only saw a couple flying, but have seen them at Mahoney State Park before. They are huge-- about 5 feet tall, with distinct  calls. Here's an image of the sandhills:

We heard several calls, and taken combined with the other volunteer reports, there are at least 10 cranes hanging out at the park…and hopefully nesting, too. It was such a peaceful few hours spent in the early morning. They had just down some burning the day before, so the contrast in landscape was beautiful. A quite enjoyable way to start my Saturday!