Unusual sandhill cranes making extended visit in Sussex countryside

When someone mentions a sandhill crane in Sussex County, people want to know how big a piece of equipment it is and what sand hill it’s working on. This time though, the sandhill cranes being discussed are the winged variety and they aren’t in the Midwest where people are used to talking about them.

For the past few weeks, three of the distinctive cranes have taken up residence in farm fields along Route 16, on the edge of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.

At the same time, another pair has been sighted farther south on the Delmarva Peninsula in Virginia’s Northampton County, and a third on the lawn of a home in Wilmington.

“The last one we saw was in 2008,” said Delmarva Ornithological Society recordkeeper Frank Rohrbacher. “Now, all of a sudden they’re knee deep in Delaware.”

With an average adult height of 42 inches, a distinctive red forehead, white cheeks and a long, pointed bill, sandhill cranes get people’s attention. Their name, according to a Wikipedia article, refers to the freshwater marshy habitat of Nebraska’s Sandhills region, along the Platte River.

True to form, the Sussex County Sandhill cranes have parked themselves in boggy areas of fields along Route 16. Personnel at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge have been answering visitors’ questions about the birds.

Birders are a tight-knit group when it comes to circulating the word about unusual sightings. With the speed of a hot rumor posted on Facebook, word of the cranes has spread rapidly and drawn a steady procession of carloads of birders and their spotting scopes making their way slowly along the Broadkill Beach Road, hoping to find the birds. The distinctive size and coloring of this particular group make their identification a slam dunk. ‘They’re real crowd pleasers,” said Rohrbacher.

Rohrbacher said he has recorded this sighting of the sandhills as firm, but, he added, that’s not always the case. “Apparently, in New Jersey’s Salem and Cumberland counties, over the bay, there is a flock of hybrid cranes that is confusing the whole birding world. A common crane was let loose 15 to 20 years ago and it attracted a sandhill as a mate.

“Their offspring have caused some trouble in recent years but people are learning to separate them out.”

Prior to the 2008 sighting in Delaware, the last time sandhills were seen in Delaware was in 1997. Though the birds are relatively rare in Delaware, they are by no means a rare bird.

Rohrbacher said the sandhills migrate down the Atlantic flyway in the fall, by the thousands, on the way to their southern wintering grounds.

They can fly very high and, with wing spans of six to eight feet, they can fly effortlessly for hundreds, even a thousand, miles. Bypassing Delaware on their way south is likely easier for them than stopping by for a visit.

“They probably were not that unusual in Delaware in the 1600s but their numbers declined for a period after that,” said Rohrbacher. In some Western states where the cranes are far more plentiful, they are hunted for their desirable meat.

Rohrbacher said the Sussex sandhills may try to winter here. “If we have a mild winter they could make it, but if we get slammed like last winter they won’t last.”

Rohrbacher said 2010 has been an unusual year for rare birds in Delaware.

“We recorded our first barnacle goose recently, at Bombay Hook, and earlier there was a lark bunting, also a first. Then there was the brown booby that landed on the head boat off Delaware’s coast and came ashore with the rest of the crew. That too was a first for Delaware.”

Rohrbacher said the reason might just be increased interest in birding.

“There are more birders now than ever and people are getting better at spotting and identifying birds.”