Pack your binoculars — Indiana has entered its peak season for the migration of sandhill cranes.
More than 20,000 sandhill cranes are traveling through the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area for their annual migration.
Staff counted 20,535 cranes on the property Tuesday. This peak count comes a week later than last year’s peak of nearly 33,000 cranes.
The cranes also visit the Indiana Dunes and the the Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area in Linton.
Ethan Plumier, assistant property manager at Goose Pond, said staff counted 450 sandhill cranes in one section of the property. He said that number is a bit lower than the actual number and expects peak numbers later in the month.
The Goose Pond is also home to a winter flock of the federally endangered whooping crane. It is estimated that fewer than 900 are alive today.
Plumier said there are currently five to seven whooping cranes on the property.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources recommends sunrise and sunset as the best times to catch the birds in action. Sandhill cranes can be identified by the red coloring on the top of their heads and their resonant call. Whooping cranes are taller than sandhill cranes and have bright white bodies compared to the sandhill’s grey or rusty coloring.
The birds will continue migration through December. Their spring migration is typically between February and April.
