March 2024 • Nebraskaland 27
But that is not the case.
"Sometimes when you see weird
stuff like that, it's actually because
we've made generalities to the mid-
continent population as a whole,"
said Andy Caven, the Vice President
of North America Programs with the
Crane Foundation who spent nine
years working on the Platte with the
Crane Trust. "Some of those way
western birds, the lessers, will deal
with willow thickets and stuff like
that a little bit diff erently because the
only place where there's water in the
landscape is shrubby stuff ."
Conservation photographer
Michael Forsberg began his career
with Nebraskaland Magazine and
has photographed the birds across
North America. Some of the greater
sandhill cranes, he said, especially
those of southern Canada and western
Minnesota, nest in deep wetlands with
more cover than birds nesting on the
Arctic tundra. "They're taller birds
that are maybe more comfortable in
situations that have more woodlands,"
Forsberg said.
"Sandhill cranes, besides just being
really resilient, I think they use a lot
more diff erent types of habitats than
people give credit for. They defi nitely
have their preferences, but they will
make whatever works work. They need
grasslands and wetlands, but I'm not
sure they're as picky as people think."
Forsberg captured the photos for his
fi rst article on cranes that appeared in
this magazine in 1996 along the same
stream a mile to the east. The birds I
watched fi lled a 60-yard-wide gap
between larger trees and had a clear
fl ight path in and out from both the
north and the south, a site similar to
the one Forsberg chose.
