Haehnle Sanctuary Crane Count 11/24/2025 by Don Henise

(Steve Jerant)

The reports from the greeters at Haehnle Sanctuary over the weekend were that more than 2,000 cranes were observed on Saturday and 2,737 counted on Sunday. For our official count on Monday evening, 3,455 Sandhill Cranes were counted coming in to roost in Mud Lake Marsh. This is the highest count since the banner year of 2012 when we had a record count of 8,177 cranes. All of the counters agreed that we probably missed a lot of cranes as they came in a hurry as the light was failing. We estimated that maybe 200-300 cranes were missed by our clickers.

(Don Henise)

When Robyn and I first arrived at 2:00 pm, we had a fair bit of songbird activity around the hill near the kiosk, the highlight being a Brown Creeper that was inspecting one of the tree trunks in the newly cleared oak savannah area. A pair of Trumpeter Swans circled around the marsh and a nice adult male Northern Harrier worked over the close marsh during the crane flight.

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) (Don Henise)

Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) (Don Henise)

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) (Don Henise)

We tallied a total of 30 bird species for the afternoon and evening. See the eBird checklist linked below.


Total Cranes Roosting:  3455

Counters:   Robyn Henise, Ross Green, Gary Siegrist, Steve Jerant, Don Henise

Compiled by:  Don Henise

Complete eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S286034976

(Steve Jerant)