GIBBON, Neb. — This is a land of enchantment.
Thousands of charismatic sandhill cranes with loud, rattling kar-r-o-o-o calls, dangling legs and graceful river landings captivated U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar during his visit Monday to the Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon.
Salazar stood silent and transfixed by the spectacle.
“It's inspirational,'' he finally said. “It's awesome to watch these birds return to a river where they've been coming for millennia. It's incredible, a crown jewel for Nebraska.''
Salazar spent nearly two hours in a riverbank viewing blind under the spring spell of sandhill cranes as he watched waves of the migrating birds return to the braided Platte River to roost in wetlands and on sandbars for the night.
Wind whooshed off the wings of swirling flights of cranes buzzing the river after sunset. Salazar cupped his hands behind his ears to amplify the deafening calls of tens of thousands of the birds.
From about mid-February to mid-April, an estimated 500,000 sandhill cranes concentrate along the stretch of the Platte extending from Chapman west to Lexington and beyond. The birds stay for four to six weeks to feed on waste corn in farm fields, and insects.
Salazar's Nebraska visit came on the eve of a 10-day period when the largest concentration of cranes is expected to be in the state before they continue their flights north to nesting grounds in Canada and Siberia.
He stopped in Nebraska to highlight the work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, private landowners and many other partners in Nebraska in working to protect, restore, enhance and manage Rainwater Basin wetlands.
“The conservation legacy created in this country is the envy of the world,'' Salazar said. “To see what's happened in the (Platte) river in truly amazing. To see what's going on … is a true celebration.''
The Rainwater Basin is a complex of wetlands scattered throughout a 17-county area south of the Platte River in south-central Nebraska. The wetlands are shallow basins that provide resting and feeding areas for millions on birds during spring and fall migration.
The area is internationally known for its significance to migratory birds. Millions of birds — including endangered whooping cranes and an estimated 500,000 sandhill cranes — funnel into the basin on their northward migration each spring.
Ninety percent of the continental population of white-fronted geese, nearly half of the continental mallard population and nearly a third of the continental pintail population use the basin for rest and food.
As if on cue, a black cloud of pintail ducks erupted from the Funk wetlands and lines of honking, high-flying snow geese passed overhead as Salazar talked about the successful Nebraska model of conservation partnerships in restoring wetlands.
It was a sample of what was to come a few hours later at Rowe.
Before settling into a Rowe blind to watch cranes return to their roosts, Salazar toured two waterfowl production areas managed by the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service. One, the Funk Waterfowl Production Area southwest of Kearney, is considered one of the best for bird viewing opportunities in the western part of the basin.
At Clark Waterfowl Production Area southwest of Axtell, Salazar talked with fifth-generation farmer Steve Nelson of Axtell about the local, state and federal partnerships that solved a water drainage problem on Nelson's farm on the edge of the basin.
“Partnerships make these things work,'' he said.
Salazar later said he was “very concerned'' about Republican efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate funding for key conservation programs from the federal 2011-12 budget.
“If we don't invest in conservation,'' he said, “we're taking away a legacy we've built up as Americans.''
Contact the writer:
402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
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