Sandhill Crane Migration - Platte River, Nebraska - 24" x 48"

Every spring, more than 650,000 sandhill cranes fly through central Nebraska on their way north to their summer nesting grounds. Droves of them fly in for hours along the Platte River so they can all convene on sandbars to roost together every night. Their gathering constitutes one of the largest animal migrations on the planet, and is something I’d wanted to witness for as long as I’d known about it. (In NEBRASKA, of all places)

This year - 2023 - I finally had the chance to see it for myself. The Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary outside of Kearny, NE hosts some fantastic educational programs including dawn- and dusk- viewing opportunities from protected hides, to allow nerds like me to get a front-row seat to one of the planet’s most extraordinary events. I wasn’t really prepared for how utterly mind-blowing it was: as the sun went down the flocks started coming in, first as a steady trickle, and then suddenly there was a giant, cacophonous display occupying the entirety of the sky. Sandhill cranes have incredibly loud/distinct calls; eventually, there were so many you couldn’t hear yourself talk over the din. It was utterly mesmerizing. 

This painting can’t exactly capture the sound or the scale of the cranes that evening– but I tried my best to emulate just a little bit of their wonder and beauty.

Prints of this image are also available.