Rivers as staging areas

Parts of the Mississippi and Platte River are key to bird migration

A large pod of white pelicans arrived today on the Upper Mississippi River near LaCrosse Wisconsin. They will spend some time on the River before heading further north to breed.

Gulls and pelicans gather on the submerged sandbars - screenshots from explore.org web cam

Almost 600 miles to the southwest in Nebraska, lesser sandhill cranes have gathered on the Platte River as a staging area before migrating north to nest in Arctic Canada, northern Alaska, and the Siberian Peninsula. The Platte River will host over 500,000 cranes during the month of March.

The Platte River in south-central Nebraska is a wide, shallow waterbody with plenty of sandbars for the cranes to roost on.

Night vision of the cranes sleeping in the river - the wide open stretch of water provides them with protection from predators.

The “lesser” sandhill species resides in the Central and Pacific Flyway regions and is not found in Minnesota. Minnesota has the “greater” subspecies that nests in the state and southern Canada. It is about twice as big as its “lesser” cousin.

Sunset on the Platte with the cranes arriving from nearby farm fields to roost in the River - screen shot from the explore.org web cam. The time to watch the web cam is at sunrise or sunset when the cranes are arriving or leaving the river. This time of year the Nebraska sunsets are quite spectacular too.