Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

Traveling through the area around Lake Okeechobee to Thanksgiving, the birding in that area is always good. About 4-5 miles north of Okeechobee on 98, there was a flock of over a hundred sandhill cranes. As far as I know, these are resident birds, no migrants make it down this far. I have watched this group of cranes multiply for 35 years, from a single pair. The rancher has made life good for the cranes, i see two or three dozen in this area routinely. The largest flock of non residents I know of is on 721 west of the lake, over fifty. This group is now much larger. Makes you wonder how much different the effort to establish whoopers might have been if they had focused on areas with at least some predator control.