SANDHILL CRANES OVER BLACKHORSE CANYON

A 1972 issue of the Heppner Gazette Times interviewed an early pioneer, Vida Zink (Mrs Ernest Heliker), who traveled to Morrow County with her parents as a child in1889. While she was still young, Vida’s parents leased the Leach Ranch in Blackhorse Canyon. Vida told the Gazette Times reporter that one of her vivid memories was “the yearly visit of the huge sandhill cranes that came into the Leach Ranch.” I am perplexed. I spent my early childhood years in Blackhorse Canyon, about two miles from the Leach Ranch, and cannot remember ever seeing or having a sandhill crane pointed out to me in that area. So it’s a mystery. Sandhill cranes in the dryland farming area of Morrow County?

My research begins. I called my brother Tony, who farms in Blackhorse Canyon and is a "birder". Yes, he tells me. There are cranes in Morrow County. He has seen them near the Anson Wright Park and Bull Prairie, south of Ruggs. He has not seen sandhill cranes on the ground in Blackhorse Canyon. He has seen large dark flocks of cranes flying north in the Spring, towards the Columbia National Wildlife Area near Othello, Washington. And he has watched them in the Fall flying south toward their California wintering grounds. In their October flight, he said, he often sees them breaking formation and circling to gain altitude for this leg of their migration. We discuss that in our childhood, as we sighted them overhead, we probably thought they were geese. We agree that Vida Heliker's sandhill cranes were probably flying over and not on the ground.

Next, I email Gary Ivey, a researcher for the International Crane Foundation. Ivey is based in Bend, Oregon, and is with the West Coast Crane Working Group. Indeed, he tells me, the lesser sandhill cranes pass over Morrow County during migration from their breeding grounds in SW Alaska to their wintering areas in California. They come through heading south mostly during October and return to the north through Oregon in March and early April. They do typically circle during migration to rise to catch better thermal air currents so they can soar to save energy. 

These maps show the central flyway of the lesser sandhill crane in Oregon, 

going directly over Heppner and Lexington, Oregon.

More research on the internet tells me that sandhill cranes are big, with wingspans that can be over six feet. They have long legs and necks, and long pointed beaks. Juveniles are gray, washed with brown. Adults are gray with distinctive red crowns. During breeding season, the gray plumage of adults is often stained a rusty brown with mud. A “bustle” covers the short tail with long drooping inner wing feathers, giving the tail a distinctive drooping appearance. To see an eight minute video of Gary Ivey and sandhill cranes on Sauvie Island, Oregon, copy and paste this url: http://www.opb.org/television/programs/ofg/segment/sandhill-crane-migrations-revealed-by-satellites/

Looking further, I discover on the internet an October 20, 1805 entry by William Clark in his Journal, “While sitting on a rock waiting for Captain Lewis (probably near Blalock Island) I shot a crane which was flying over of the common kind.” Later, he adds, “I killed a duck that with the crane afforded us a good supper. The Indians continued all night at our fires. This day we made 36 miles.” So cranes in Morrow County is not new information. Just  new to me.

More reading gives me current information from the Pendleton Birding Club in the form of their April 2015 newsletter, Kakya Taymut. “…(I)ndications are that during the past several years (not just in 2015) many species are tending to arrive earlier in the spring in Umatilla County. Warmer, milder winter and spring weather, due to climate change, is a likely factor that influences the migration timing of some of these species. The apparent change in the winter occurance of sandhill cranes is another indication of a milder climate. In 2013 and 2014, small groups of cranes lingered in the Echo Meadows area until mid-December. In previous years, the last cranes would migrate through Umatilla County in November.” “This past January and February (and possibly longer), two sandhill cranes were seen by several observers just north of Pilot Rock. They were mostly seen foraging in a particular wheat stubble field and apparently spent the winter in that area. … Overwintering sandhill cranes is a new phenomenon for Umatilla County and may be related to a milder climate.”

In one online blog, a local person comments, “There have been a few residing at the ranch over the summer and there are a bunch that spend time there in the fall --- very noisy. The ranch ranges from about 4,000 to 4,600 feet in elevation in the western Blue Mountains (Morrow County, Fossil Unit). Timber and meadows, some water. I love watching these birds fly. The first time I saw a couple at the ranch …. I was amazed at how tall these birds are.”

Vida Heliker offered another observation which I want to explore: Vida told the Gazette Times reporter that she "...recalls that many years ago when these cranes stopped at several places in the county, one struck little Pearl Wright at her family home near Ruggs and pecked out one of her eyes.” “Do you know," I asked Gary Ives, "of many instances where humans have been injured by sandhill cranes?” “A crippled whooping crane,” he responded, “was reported to have killed a native hunter in Canada in the late 1800s by stabbing through his eye into his brain. They can cause injury with their beaks and their talons, which are very sharp also.” Another on line blog includes the comment, "If your dog goes to retrieve one, give your dog safety glasses?" So I now know, keep your children and pets at a safe distance.

Sandhill cranes have passed over and perhaps staged in Morrow County for perhaps thousands of years. I'm sure that many more alert persons than I, including Vida Zink Heliker, have always known that. For me, the association of cranes with Morrow County is new and exciting.  I often experience moments in life where I have to ask myself, "Where was I when that happened?" But to receive knowledge at any point in life is a wonderful thing. I'll be looking for sandhill cranes on my next visit to Blackhorse Canyon.