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Sandhill cranes going south to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park
AdamsQuailHunter
Member Posts: 2,022 ✭✭✭✭
BIG flight of several hundred birds passed over at 4:45 pm - Lake City, Florida - headed for Paynes Prairie.
Best Regards - AQH
Comments
Haven't seen any here in Western Montana for 2 months or so,
I thought we had a lot of them in Michigan but when I hunted north of Hinsdale almost to the Canadian border, we would sometimes see a thousand or more on the ground in one group. I guess they had come down from Canada and staged in Montana for their trip south. It seemed you could hear that distinct call they make for miles. Here at home if I get 10 in the field all at once, that is a lot. Haven't seen any since the middle of November. They get back here in plenty of time to pluck barely sprouted corn from the fields and eat the kernels. Needless to say, the farmers around here aren't very fond of Sandhills. Bob
Sandhill Season here in KY from DEC7 TO end of January. Two bird limit per day.
Actually about the size of a small Turkey when dressed out..
I have not hunted them but fellow down the road does all the time.
are they really that good to eat?
I have heard that they are the rib-eye of the sky
They can't be hunted in Florida as they can in some other states. Best Regards - AQH
Best jerky I’ve ever eaten. Grind up the meat, season and use a jerky gun.
The noise they make, once you know what it is, is very unmistakable. One of the great sounds of fall, as well as watching them swirl upward in some of the last heat risings of the year. Wonderful animals, doing wonderful things, on this wonderful planet that man keeps trying to ruin....
They used to come to our house every day and they would eat right out of my hand.
The eastern birds are a good bit larger than the western flyway birds.
Stayed late in Wis. gone now, cant hunt them here, ate one in SD and it was fantastic.
The Sandhill Crane is fully protected in Florida by the federal migratory bird act even though the pictures I posted are of the "Florida Sand Hill Crane" which does not migrate. The Florida Sand hill's number between 4000 and 5000 but are joined by approximately 25,000 migrating Sand Hills during the winter migration period.
The Florida Sandhill Crane can reach a height of 47.2 inches with a wingspan around 78.7 inches
They taste like chicken.
Amazing birds, Several years ago, I actually ran into a breeding pair in a sage brush covered high country meadow about 8,500’ elevation.
They pulled all the traditional bid tricks to lure my mule and I away from the nesting area. Pretty comical to see a long legged bird like that doing the broken wing crippled walk and both male and female were “talking” to me the whole time.
When I was In Kanas a few years ago whitetail hunting near Great Bend, I saw more Sandhills in one afternoon, than I had seen combined in my entire life and I see quite a few each spring and fall. It was an awesome afternoon viewing all those skeins of them flying over and at pretty low altitude, something I am not accustomed to seeing.
Mule
No Sandhills around here tgst I know about (eastern nc coastal plain ) . We do get thousands of tundra swan and snow geese around the Chowan River area and out towards Lake Mattermuskeet.
my mother just recently made us some duck jerky that Gage had got it was OK good flavor just tough maybe a little overdone
Cranes (I don't know what species) have destroyed some of the best Brook Trout streams around here.
Fished streams around Burdorf years ago, many Brookies, no cranes. Last couple of years many cranes, no Brookies.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
I have found Sandhills to be a bit too gritty for my tastes.
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