Two Common Cranes, Two States, ONE week!

On Sunday, November 23rd my friend John met me at the house at 2:30 a.m. and we promptly took off to Muleshoe, TX in hunt for that state's first record of Common Crane, that had been reported a few days earlier at Muleshoe NWR, but had been wondering to the ag fields in the surrounding area.

The 245 mile drive in the wee hours was uneventful and we arrived at Muleshoe right at dawn, Texas time which is an hour later than New Mexico.

We made our way about 16 miles south of Muleshoe and to the fields all around the tiny community of Needmore. There were thousands of Sandhill Cranes flying in all directions! Talk about finding a needle in sea of needles!

Also, the wind was forecast to be 50-60+ mph and believe me it was! Birding was extreme all day in blinding sand storms, sleet, snow, rain, and bitter cold! At times it was almost impossible to stand up.

Though there were dozens of birders the day before, there was only one today, Ron Baltzegar from Greenville, TX.

We endured these conditions all day, but despite the hellish conditions we persevered. Did I mention that my friend John is NOT a birder, but was curious to see what a hard-core bird chase was all about. He was finding out!

I finally found a field of cranes that was close to a farm building that we were able to get next to and it mercifully blocked the wind....completely! It was now easy to scan the fairly close sandhills.

We drove over to an area close by to see if there were any other birders. We found Ron, Erik Bruhnke, and his friend Kelly, also from Texas bearing vicious winds in a nearby field. It didn't take much convincing to get them to follow us over to the protective building and the cranes.

Now able to think we mused that the crane had been seen the previous two days at exactly 2:30 pm. Well,  I'm telling you at exactly 2:30 (actually 3:30 Texas time) a massive flock of 2,000+ sandhills flew in right in front of us! It only took about 10 minutes of scanning before I had the bad boy in my sights! Magnificent!

The five of us enjoyed a wonderful private showing for over an hour! It was a long tough day, but the reward was certainly worth all the suffering.

As a bonus Kelly and I went and checked out an old abandoned cotton mill a couple hundred meters away that I had suspected harbored a Barn Owl. Sure enough we flushed one!

We all watched the cranes until they finally started to take off at around 4:45 p.m. Texas time.

It was time for John and I to scadadle and make the long, but happy journey home. It wasn't easy as we endured several periods of white-out snow storms on both lonely back roads as well as I-40!

Common Crane in Needmore, TX Picture taken by Ron Baltzegar

Yesterday, Monday, December 1st, I left the house at 4:00 a.m. and headed down towards Roswell, NM to look for this state's first photo documented record of Common Crane!

It was supposed to be another windy and cold day and it was! Oh well. 

I arrived in Roswell in the usual 2.5 hours and took a slight side jaunt to check for an ultra-rare Black Vulture that had been seen recently with a roost of Turkey Vultures. I dipped on the black so headed to the ag fields just south of Roswell where the crane had been seen just the afternoon before. 

It was only in the low 20s and the windchill was wicked!

There were plenty of cranes and similar to the chase on November 23rd no birders.

I checked field after field after field and covered a huge territory checking 1000s of cranes, but no luck. 

I was actually feeling rather ill and at one point started home! I made it about 20 miles before I shook it off and bucked up and headed back! 

Finally at around 3:00 I started to find cranes again in some fields I hadn't checked earlier and hundreds and hundreds of cranes were flying in. I figured this was it!

I hooked up with a nice gentlemen from Las Cruces and we scanned and scanned with no luck! At one point I thought I had the common only to have the massive flock take off an instant later - damn!

Another gentlemen from Roswell joined us and he said that Larry Murphy from Demming was scanning cranes over on a nearby road. We didn't know at that point that Larry had actually found the bird!

I was observing that the masses of cranes were heading due west and it appeared they were settling down somewhere. I told the gents that if we can find that field we would find the crane.

It only took about 10 minutes to locate the crane flock and there were already a few lucky birders who had arrived just before us and had the Common Crane located! Joy!

I got the scope on it and enjoyed wonderful views from 3:45 p.m. to 4:45. 

So that completed the crane slam in Texas and New Mexico! Long hard days with irreplaceable memories!

Common Crane near Roswell, NM 12/01/14 Pic taken by Roger Clark