Sandhill cranes stopped at a lake in the Southern Okanagan on their migration route to Northern Canada.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Meghann Fletcher
April 17, 2024 - 6:00 AM
Sandhill cranes are migrating through the southern Interior, stopping to rest and eat at ponds and lakes before continuing the long flight north.
South Okanagan resident Meghann Fletcher saw the unique looking birds on White Lake in Oliver a few days ago.
“We had arrived at the perfect time to see the arrival of the large flocks of Sandhill Cranes during their migration,” she said. “This was an event I had been hoping to see for quite some time. I have never experienced such a large number of birds in one place before.”
She shared a video of with iNFOnews.ca of a flock flying through blue skies making their peculiar sounds.
Sandhill cranes are long-distance migrants, with three subspecies living year-round in Florida, Mississippi and Cuba and three subspecies migrating between northern North America to the southern states and Mexico, according to All About Birds.
They migrate in flocks of hundreds and are known to be noisy, with wide flapping wings and loud squawks.
A popular spot to view them during the spring migration is at Douglas Lake plateau in Merritt.
Cranes do dances while courting, stretching their wings, pumping their heads, bowing and leaping into the air, and they mate for life, staying with their mates year-round. They will soon be breeding in wetlands, fields and prairies across North America.
“The magnitude of their sound was incredible, seeing the sandhill cranes flying together is such graceful formation was truly breathing taking," Fletcher said. "They landed with such precision. It was amazing."
Fletcher is a bird photographer whose works are found in magazines, calendars and local newspapers.
Go here to find her photography page.
If you get photos of migrating birds you want to share, send them to news@infonews.ca.
— This article was updated at 7:56 a.m. Wednesday, April 17, 2024 to include comment from the photographer.
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