Spring really starts when more than a million Sand Hill cranes, 80% of the world’s population, drop into Nebraska’s central Platte River Valley.
The shallow, braided river equips the cranes to resume their compulsive annual journey to northern breeding grounds.
The spring migrations are an example of avian instincts at work. The seasonal change also is strongly felt at Fontenelle Forest’s Raptor Woodland Refuge.
Many raptors shed their underlying feathers, particularly two Great Horned owls. Cinnamon and Minerva (AKA One-Eyed Minnie) scatter fluffy white down, like lost ducklings, throughout their mew.
Nestbuilding is rife. Instinct pushes Minerva to lay two unfertilized eggs, and both fall and break. Rusty, the 26-year-old red-tailed hawk, builds stick nests, only to throw them down before rebuilding. To some residents, fake eggs are given to address biology.
Several residents nest on pea-gravel floors. Aero, a Peregrine Falcon, chooses a spot against her inner door. To enter, you must push her aside. She glares and pecks your boots.
The spring warmly greets songbirds, sparrows and other avian species. But numbers and talons and nests? Oh, my.
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