Early this Tuesday morning I helped the Arizona Game & Fish conduct their annual count of the Sandhill Cranes in the Sulphur Springs Valley. The sandy road leading to Crane Lake was still wet from the night’s rainfall and a light fog hung over the valley, but soon that faded away leaving us with optimal viewing for the cranes. The sound coming from the lake was tremendous with thousands of cranes waking and greeting the day. By 8:06 am they had started to lift off, in groups of 10, 15, and upwards of 75 birds – not as many in the individual groups as we had seen in previous counts – but they kept coming. Over an hour later more than 7,000 cranes had left Crane Lake and headed to the fields to forage. Jim Hefflefinger and I tallied the cranes still standing in the water of the lake, then headed back to Willcox to meet with the rest of the group, have breakfast, and total the numbers from the different locations. At Crane Lake we totaled 8,078 Sandhill Cranes, the AEPCO viewing area had 1,727 cranes, Cochise Lake had an estimated 500 cranes, and Whitewater Draw came in the highest with 22,364. Adding these key roosting locations with other outlying areas the grand total number of Sandhill Cranes was 36,418! A new record by nearly 5,000 cranes! Looks like a great time to see Sandhill Cranes in the valley!
-Homer Hansen