Sandhill Crane Migration in Wilcox
Winter Migration Road Trip, Day 9 | Lordsburg, NM to Wilcox, AZ | Sandhill Cranes in Wilcox | November 2023
Today was our last full day on the road, since we planned on arriving in Tucson the next day in time for a weekend hike with friends. Our plan for the day was to enter Arizona, see if we could see any sandhill cranes on the playa, and then find a dispersed camping area near Cochise Stronghold or the West side of the Dragoons. We were thrilled to enter our favorite previous home state, even though it didn’t give us the warm welcome that it’s known for — there was a cold front passing through, and with that came big clouds that obscured some of our favorite familiar mountain ranges.
When we made it to Wilcox, we drove to the Twin Lakes viewing area just South of town to find a letterbox and hopefully see some cranes. We arrived around 10, and immediately after getting out of the van we could hear some birds in the lake. Sure enough, we could see a dozen or so cranes standing tall among the surrounding wood ducks, widgeons, and a even a couple of snow geese. Curtis found the letterbox, and we set off on a little walk on the road around the lake. It turned out to be longer than we had anticipated, but Charlotte seemed very eager to walk so we were able to complete the entire loop easily.
As we neared the van, we started to hear and see more cranes flying in from wherever they were out feeding. We parked the van in a nearby spot to watch them while we ate lunch. Being a smaller lake, we weren’t expecting much, but over the next 2-3 hours we were constantly entertained by the cranes flying in, often in large groups of 100+, until there were easily over 3,000 cranes filling the lake right in front of us!
I really don’t believe that you need to be into bird watching to be entertained by these birds. We were completely fascinated with watching them come in from unbelievably high elevations, seeing them come out of the sky as if they were falling, and somehow landing in an empty spot among hundreds of other cranes. At this point, all we wanted to do for the rest of the day was watch them, and a little research showed us that we could actually camp right where we were parked. So that was that — we ended up staying in this spot for almost 24 hours, watching the cranes fly in around noon, seeing some come and go throughout the afternoon, and eventually witnessing the fly out in the morning.
Having seen the sandhill crane migration in Kearney, Nebraska, I have to say that this one was much more entertaining for us. (Given, we only saw the annual migration in Nebraska once from one location, so we don’t have a lot of experience or the best advice for witnessing it there!) In Nebraska, the cranes usually feed in fields during the day, so the best way to see them is at night, around and immediately after sunset, or at sunrise when they fly back out to the fields. Since they pass through Nebraska in March, it can be rather cold standing outside waiting for and watching them. It was an incredible experience that we really enjoyed, and would maybe do again. But now we know that we can see them right here, up close, on a smaller body of water, in warmer weather and during daylight hours!
As we watched, we reminisced about the places we’ve seen the cranes. Just this year, we saw and heard some while in Michigan’s upper peninsula in August, and again in the lower peninsula at the end of October, and now here we were, having followed them all the way to Arizona. We also recalled the first time we remember ever seeing them, 10 years ago on our first road trip to Cochise County…except that time, it was a hunter proudly showing off a couple that he had shot. We remember how excited he was. And now, watching them here, we couldn’t relate less to the feeling of pride over taking one of these birds down. We love them and hope to spend many more years following their migrations!
After a full day of watching cranes, we settled in for what may be the loudest night of camping we’ve ever had. There was maybe a lull between the hours of 2-3am, but overall sandhill cranes are very noisy neighbors — but we’d still prefer their cries over most other sounds! We watched as their numbers dwindled quickly while we had breakfast, and by the time we were ready to leave they were almost completely cleared out. We may have not gotten where we planned to go or done any hiking on our first day back in Arizona, but I love that we were able to change our plans on a whim and spend an entire day watching the cranes.
Side note: We went back a couple weeks later to watch them again, and that time they didn’t show up quite as early as they did today. We’re guessing that maybe the cold front made them want to retire early for the day. We also learned that their numbers really peak in January, and there is a festival that happens the second weekend of January in Wilcox. Last year, the national forest and others estimated over 40,000 cranes passed through Cochise County!
