A Brief History of Sandhill Cranes on Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge
Sandhill Cranes are a conspicuous winter bird on Wheeler NWR. However, that has not always been the case. The reason historically, Sandhill Cranes in the eastern population migrated well east of Wheeler, moving from northern Canada and the Great Lakes area through Indiana, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee to spend their winter in southern Georgia and northern Florida.
The earliest known reference to them occurring in Alabama can be found in A.H. Howell’s Birds of Alabama (1928). He noted that “A few pairs are resident and breed in the pine flats of Baldwin County. D.R. Peteet reports a small bunch living within two miles of Foley, and a few are known to occur about the shores of Perdido Bay, having been frequently heard calling in January, 1912, by the residents of Orange Beach. A pair was reported in the same vicinity in August 1911, and during the same summer an adult and a young bird were captured near the mouth of Perdido Bay, on the Alabama side.”
In the early 1990’s, for reasons unknown, small groups began to linger and spent the winter in east Tennessee near Hiwassee. The number of birds wintering there increased dramatically and about the same time small numbers found their way to Wheeler. Three wintered on the Refuge in 1995; 11 in 1997; 50 in 2000; 500 in 2005; 1200 in 2007; 10,000 in 2015…doubling and tripling in number some years.
Fast forward to now. Walk outside the Refuge Visitor Center on any winter day and you will probably see hundreds, if not thousands, of Sandhill Cranes. At their seasonal peak we now expect to see up to 10,000 in the fields surrounding the Visitor Center and Wildlife Observation Building while 15,000 to 20,000 use the Refuge in most years and, in good years, upwards of 25,000 have been recorded. They proclaim their presence in flight and on the ground by raucous call….some might even call it a noisy din.
If we travel back to the winter after July 7, 1938 when Franklin D. Roosevelt established Wheeler NWR by Presidential Proclamation, we wouldn’t hear a Sandhill Crane whimper. As a matter of fact, we would have to wait 25 years, when on November 28, 1963, the first Sandhill was reported on the Refuge and we wouldn’t see it because only Ernest Jemison of the Refuge staff saw the bird! Fast forward 17 years to 1980 and we might have gotten to see the next Sandhill because it hung around for most of December.
Sandhill Crane sightings in late fall and early winter increased through the late 1980’s but the first wintering birds were in 1992 when three birds remained through January 1993. Small numbers wintered each year through 1997 when numbers started to increase dramatically. Wintering numbers seemed to double each year from 2000 through 2008, establishing the Refuge as an important Sandhill Crane wintering site.
To witness this spectacle, join us January 10-12, 2025 for the Festival of Cranes. Hope to see you there!
By Dwight Cooley