Sandhill Crane Migration Study
2013 Update
2012 Update
2011 Summary
2010 Summary
2008 Summary
Study Details
2013 Crane Migration Update
April 2, 2013
As of March 23, all of the cranes are back in Ohio and most of them are in their respective breeding areas. Crane 117252 is still prospecting for a breeding or summering area as it flew from Wayne County to Coshocton County on April 1 (no fooling). This is the last map for the spring 2013 season.
March 11, 2013
The northern crane migration has just about come to an end. Crane 117257 arrived at its breeding ground in northwest Ohio on March 4 and crane 95413 came closer to Ohio as it flew to Marion, IN on March 9th. Crane 117252 which wintered at Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area south of Wooster, Ohio moved north on March 7 to southern Medina County.
February 28, 2013
Crane 95413 headed into Indiana on February 23 and is currently near the town of Linton. All of the other cranes remained at their previous locations.
February 22, 2013
Crane 117256 arrived in Ohio on February 22nd while Crane 117257 arrived in Indiana on February 19th. Crane 95413 still remains in Kentucky although it will probably back in Ohio by March 1.
February 15, 2013
Three cranes were on the move north this week. Both 117256 and 117257 left Florida on February 11. Crane 117256 stopped in Georgia while crane 117257 continued on to Hiawassee Refuge near Chattanooga, TN and arrived there on February 14. Crane 117253 resumed its northern trek after a 20 day rest in Indiana and arrived at Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area on February 12.
February 1, 2013
Even though the temps are still in the teens and twenties in Ohio, at least one crane (117253) is heading back north. It started north on January 18 after spending a month at Hiawassee Refuge near Chattanooga, TN. All other cranes remain in the same location as they were on January 15.
January 15, 2013
All of the cranes except for 119996 remained in their same locations for the second straight week. On January 10th, 119996 flew about 30 miles to the east and is currently near the city of Hillsboro.
January 7, 2013
All of the cranes have remained in the same locations as the previous week.
January 2, 2013
Crane 95413 started south on December 28 and is currently about 40 miles south of Louisville. Crane 119996 left the Lake Erie marshes on New Year’s Day is near Mason, Ohio. We have not received a signal from 108162 for over a month due to transmitter issues, so it was removed from the map.
2012 Crane Migration Update - Fall migration has started
December 24, 2012
Crane 117253 flew from Kentucky to Hiawassee Refuge near Chattanooga, TN on December 19 and is still there. None of the other cranes have moved since last week.
December 17, 2012
On December 12, crane 117257 continued its southern migration after spending a little more than 2 weeks at Hiawassee Refuge. It arrived in Florida on December 13. Crane 117253 moved about 50 miles north on December 17 as it remains in Kentucky.
December 10, 2012
Three of Ohio’s cranes have now started their southward trek. Crane 117257 is still near Chattanooga, TN while crane 117256 moved a bit east on December 4 and is about 40 miles southwest of Jacksonville. Crane 117253 started south on December 5 and has been in Kentucky since the 6th.
December 3, 2012
Cranes 117256 and 117256 have continued their migration south. Crane 117256 is just northwest of Orlando after flying nearly 950 miles in 7 days while crane 117257 has been at Hiawasse Wildlife Refuge near Chattanooga, TN since November 27. The other nine cranes have not yet ventured south.
November 27, 2012
Two of the eleven radio-marked sandhill cranes have started their southward migration. 117256 and 117257 both left on Tuesday, November 27 and have flown around 200 miles south to southern Indiana. The mild weather during the rest of the week may delay the other birds’ start, but they all should be on their way south in the next couple of weeks.
The Division of Wildlife currently has 11 cranes marked with satellite transmitters. Two of the cranes (95413 and 97640) were marked in 2010, four of the cranes (108161, 108162, 95412, and 97643) were marked in 2011, and the rest (117252, 117253, 117256, 117257, and 119996) were caught and marked in 2012. Two of the cranes captured near Killbuck and Funk Bottoms Wildlife Areas migrated north on October 13 where they are still located. These side trips are uncommon, but we have seen similar trips in 2010 and 2011 when 97640 flew to Indiana/Michigan prior to migration. New maps will be posted as the cranes start to move south this fall.
2011-12 Crane Summary
Two birds captured in summer 2010 still had operating satellite transmitters, and Division biologists marked 7 more cranes (6 adults and 1 juvenile) with satellite transmitters. The cranes were captured by using a net propulsion device called a NetLauncher, which throws a 20’ x 30’ net over the cranes as they feed at a bait pile. In addition, biologists also used a netgun shot from a helicopter to catch the birds on the ground (see photos below). The cranes were removed from the net, fitted with transmitters, banded, and released within 5 minutes so that they were not over-stressed.
The extremely mild winter caused the birds to alter their migration routes. Only four cranes migrated to Florida with the rest either migrating part of the way or not leaving the state at all. All of the cranes had finished their southern migration by January 23, 2012. Some birds started their northern movement on January 25 and all were back in Ohio by March 8, 2012.
Crane locations as of March 8, 2012
Crane locations as of January 23, 2012
Crane Capture Techniques
 
Spring 2011 Migration Map
2010 Crane Update
Numbers of breeding sandhill cranes have been slowly increasing over the last decade from about 2 pairs in 2000 to over 20 in 2010. In addition, there is a large nonbreeding flock at the Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area southwest of Wooster with over 20 birds. The increase of sandhill cranes is not only occurring in Ohio, but throughout the Great Lakes region including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada.
A primary concern for wildlife managers in the eastern U.S. has been to improve methods of counting the number of sandhill cranes in this Eastern Population. Attaching satellite transmitters to cranes will improve our understanding of migration ecology and enable managers to target the timing and locations of migrating sandhills so that a reliable count of the birds can be made. To that end, the Ohio Division of Wildlife has attached 5 transmitters to adult sandhill cranes in Ohio (see the table below). Our study is being conducted simultaneously with projects in Ontario by Bird Studies Canada, and in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and Tennessee by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The cranes were captured in July and August 2010 by using a net propulsion device called a NetLauncher. The device threw a 20’ x 30’ net over the cranes as they were feeding at a bait pile (see photo below). Captured cranes were quickly taken out of the net, blood was drawn from an adult, and a transmitter was placed on at least 1 adult at each location. Three juveniles were also instrumented, 1 in Geauga County and 1 at Grand River Wildlife Area in Trumbull County (see photo below). Cranes were released as quickly as possible to reduce stress on the birds.
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Ohio Sandhill Cranes Captured in Summer 2010
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Capture Date
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Capture and Release Location
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Number of Adults
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Number of juveniles
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7/14/10
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Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Lucas Co.
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1
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0
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7/18/10
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Geauga Co.
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2
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2
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7/19/10
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Geauga Co.
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1
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0
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7/27/10
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Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area, Holmes Co.
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2
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0
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8/10/10
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Grand River Wildlife Area, Trumbull Co.
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1
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1
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More specific FALL 2010 migration details:
A single crane captured and instrumented in Geauga County began migrating over the weekend of November 27-28, 2010. On November 30th it was in Georgia and over the December 4-5 weekend it continued south to the state of Florida, 20 miles south of Disneyworld.
The crane family group that was originally in Geauga County moved southwest to Wayne County in the Funk Bottoms area in mid-November. On December 6 they arrived in Kentucky, and on December 8 they had moved to the Hiawassee Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee. One day later, December 9, they were located in central Georgia, then on December 13 they were near Tallahassee, Florida. They arrived at their wintering area near Orlando (25 miles west of Disneyworld) on December 15. This is the same location that a crane tracked in 2007 over-wintered. Unfortunately we have lost contact with the transmitter in this group; the crane may have been killed by a predator.
The crane family unit from Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area had moved to southern Ohio near Chillicothe in early December. On December 9 they arrived in southern Georgia after a 2-day flight.
The family unit at Grand River Wildlife Area was in Columbiana County on December 9. On December 13 they had moved further south to Kentucky, and on December 15 they were at Hiawassee Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee.
Unfortunately, transmitters on the Killbuck Marsh pair failed and we were not able to follow their migration path.
2010 Crane Migration Map
2008 Nesting and Migration Summary
The first of 2 sandhill crane eggs hatched on May 6, 2008. Unfortunately, the second egg in the clutch did not hatch. The colt (a young crane is called a "colt") and the 2 adults moved away from the nest in early June. They stayed in the area around Aquilla and Chardon, Ohio, all summer (see the 2nd aerial photo below). The battery on the female's transmitter was only expected to function for 9 months and should have expired in May 2008. Since August 20, 2008, only 2 transmissions were received from the transmitter (see top aerial photo below). Both locations were only accurate to >1 km; they were the last locations we received for the female crane. There are no plans to replace her transmitter in the near future.
Photos: the top photo below is the colt and one adult walking through a corn field taken in July. The colt is the bird with no red on his head. The next several photos show the colt and adults when it was a small hatchling - thanks to Tami Gingrich of Geauga Park District. One photo shows the female crane on the nest during incubation. The last crane photo below was from early spring 2008 when Jason Huckeba got a beautiful picture of the female and male cranes feeding together. Notice the location of the transmitter on the female’s right upper leg.
A summary of the crane's migration north in spring 2008: the female crane departed her wintering location near Orlando, Florida sometime after February 23 and arrived in Georgia near the city of Person on February 28; a distance of 200 miles. On March 4, the crane was 50 miles south of Indianapolis, a journey of about 800 miles. She stayed in the same general location in Indiana for about a week before continuing on to Ohio. She flew her last 300 miles back to Chardon the week of March 21, 2008. Other cranes had already arrived in Geauga County on March 10.
See additional information about the study at the bottom of this page. |