50 Nebraskaland • April 2019
A Rare Bird
and a rare opportunity
Story and Photos by Eric Fowler
ast spring, Chad Gideon, a friend of mine, called and told
me I needed to get down to his place on the Platte River
near Wood River ASAP: There were nine whooping cranes
hanging around the property he and his family
own. There were two problems. One, I was on the way to
the Sandhills, where I was meeting up with some folks to
photograph sharp-tailed grouse and prairie-chickens (see
page 38). And two, my luck dictates that these calls rarely
lead to photos, as by the time I arrive, the subject that spurred
the call is usually long gone. Not only that, but the river is
long and wide, the birds move, and the odds of being in the
right place for a photo are long.
But after three successful days on the grouse leks, I pulled
the plug on that shoot and headed south to test my luck.
I picked up Chad at his house in the afternoon and headed
for the river. We were walking down a trail to the crane
viewing blind he'd built on the banks a few years ago when
we spotted the white, red and black heads of two whoopers
through the vegetation of an island in the middle of the river
about 200 yards away. We watched from the blind for about 10
minutes, me snapping photos with my telephoto lens which,
even with my largest teleconverter attached, still wasn't long
A pair of whooping cranes walk past an empty photo blind on the Platte River near Wood River.
L