OkcPets Magazine March 2022

March/April 2022 • OKC Pets 15 The sandhills and other migratory birds converge on a narrow sliver of the Platte River Valley in the North American Central Flyway. One of the few places to get a close view is at Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary on the Platte River south of Gibbon, Nebraska. In addition to more than 80 percent of the world’s population of sandhill cranes, other birds congregate on the Platte during mi- gration also. They include seven million to nine million ducks and geese, hundreds of thousands of shorebirds, millions of songbirds, a few hundred bald eagles, and some of about 700 whooping cranes still in the wild. Some whoopers use the Central Flyway, and others, which were an introduced flock, use the Eastern Flyway from Flori- da to Wisconsin. The Platte, one of the longest braided rivers in North America (much of the Missouri River was and still is braided), historically attracted the birds because it was broad and somewhat treeless with long, low sandbars and slow-paced waters. Although development has altered the Platte in many places, human effort has helped to keep a critical area of the valley and the adjacent Rainwater Basin suitable for migratory birds. Sandhills travel in family groups and spend about three weeks along the Platte in the spring. A sandhill is three or four feet tall with a wingspan of six feet and a weight of eight to 12 pounds. The birds fly at about 38 miles per hour and can travel 170 to 450 miles per day. They mate for life at three or four years old and can live to be 20 to 40 years old. A pair of sandhills typically lays two eggs per year, with only one chick usually surviving. The sandhills at sunset in their fragile, timeless environment are an unforgettable sight and a breathtakingly beautiful link to the past. For more information, see www.rowesanctuary.org or call (303) 468-5282. The original version of Mills’ article, “Sandhill Cranes Are Link to Prehistoric Past,” with photographs by Bradley Mellema, was pub- lished in Blueline , the newsletter of the Association of Earth Science Editors, volume 41, number 2, spring 2008, page 2. Flocks of sandhill cranes descend on the Platte River near Gibbon, Nebraska, at sunset to rest during their spring migration.