Why I Oughta...

Each Spring and Fall in our neighborhood, if you pay attention, you'll hear the croaking that comes with the bi-annual migration of Sandhill Cranes .  They seem to fly right over our block each Fall (on their way south) and Spring (on their way back north).  Sandhill Cranes fly HIGH in the sky and in weird, sometimes-swirling patterns.   I saw them over the weekend.  Turn up your audio and have a look at their northern migration over the Western Chicago suburbs in mid-March 2024: Here is a link to a similar video of the same flight north last year in 2023 .

 Sandhill Cranes were migrating south above our house on Thanksgiving Day 2023.  I covered these large birds migrating NORTH earlier this year - March 2023 .  Below is a video showing the birds flying in a circle above Downers Grove late last month: This is the full list of posts about these fascinating birds .   I first posted about them in Fall 2020 . Spring northern migration 2021 . Spring northern migration 2022 . Spring northern migration 2023 . Fall southern migration 2023 .

Sandhill Cranes flew over Northern Illinois on their commute back north this past week and how did I know?  When I was out in the yard, I heard that migration call from these large birds.   I've heard (and watched) these big birds fly over us the past few years - both ways.  Below is a video I took of them from our backyard - It isn't super steady, but if you turn up your volume, you'll hear that familiar croaking. Here's another clip from a year ago .   And here's the full archives of Sandhill Crane-related posts .  

'Tis the season to hear a 'loud, rattling bugle call' from high up in the sky and look up to see a marvel of nature:  Sandhill Cranes flying (as a group) as part of their seasonal migration.  I 've posted about this experience a few times here on the blog including last March when I shared video of the bugle calls . On my walk home from the train station this past week, I heard that familiar call.  And stopped, looked up and found the Sandhill Cranes flying high in the sky.   Here, below, are a couple of photos of this group flying in a couple of 'v-patterns' high above Downers Grove, Illinois in mid-March. I'm almost certain that my kids and Nat are tired of me stopping and talking about Sandhill Cranes, but I find them incredibly fascinating.  According to this post, there are about 20K Sandhill Cranes that migrate over Illinois .  I was fortunate to experience a couple hundred last week. 

On a recent afternoon, we had our backdoor open to enjoy the warmer temperatures when I heard that prehistoric call of the Sandhill Crane.  We live out in the Western Suburbs of Chicago and it was early afternoon in early/mid March of 2021 when I took this video below of a group of Sandhill Cranes flying in what sure seems like a circular pattern that continues to move north .  Almost like how a tornado moves across land.  They were, as is their pattern, flying pretty high in the sky, but that sound was unmistakeable.  This is a 2:30 video, but I've started the embed below at about half-way because that's when the noise is clearest.  Turn up your speaker and click play below: This is the northern migration that I've captured now, but I also posted a similar video of these same (well...probably not THESE same birds) heading south in late November of 2020 .  You can see that video here .   Wildlife Illinois says that 20K of these amazing-looking ...

I was out for a walk over the weekend when I heard a bugle-like noise and looked up to see a row of Sandhill cranes flying south high above the Western Suburbs of Chicago. Here's a video that I took of them - that if you turn your volume WAAAAY up - you can hear what they sound like: The DuPage County Forest Preserve District has this post up from one year ago that talks about these birds and their migration patterns .  They mention that there's a place in Indiana that sees thousands of these guys every year.  On the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area DNR site , they have a count.  As of this past week, they had more than more than 16K Sandhill Cranes there on site.  Woah.