The Pizzazz of Jas Pulas

Sandhill cranes a comin' . . . (Tim Wallace)

Readers of this blog know of my fondness for sandhill cranes and there is no place within two hours of where I live that is better to revel in cranedom than Jasper Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. The region I inhabit offers spectacular avian displays but with one exception they are highly weather dependent. Three or four days a fall hundreds of hawks fly over the Illinois Beach Hawk Watch and there are days in May when warblers drip from the trees. But those special times that stick out like black print on a white page. The day before or after might be too early or too late. But if you visit Jas Pulas from late October through period preceding the first bitter cold spell you will see many thousands of sandhill cranes. They spread out in front of you as they forage in the closely cropped field that is managed for their benefit. Other flocks pass close overhead as they find the spot that draws them to a landing. All the while glorius crane music emanates from wherever there are birds, which can be almost every place. So not only is it a place from which I personally derive undneding pleasure but I can guarantee others the same treat. And so every fall I try to organize at least a couple of outings- some for birders and some with more general interests.

The first of the visits was on November 12. This one was for birders. Tim Wallace and I drove down to Kanakee Fish and Wildlife Area, east of Jas Pulas, which almost always has a nice collection of waterfowl, often including tundra swans and white-fronted geese. The parking lot is in front of the office; if you walk around the building and stand behind it you get a good view of the site. There is open water, marsh, and flats that draw large numbers of birds. Most striking off the bat was the flock of snow geese, mostly blue morphs with a scattering of white ones. Lots of Canada’s too, but we failed to pick out any white-fronts or Ross’s. Pintails, wigeon, gadwalls, green-winged teal galore, canvasback, and a fine assortment of other ducks bobbed on the water.

Periodically, Tim or I would check the parking lot to see if our companions had arrived yet: Jeanette Jaskula was coming from Rensellear to the west while Steve Sass lives in New Carlisle to the east, although it turns out he had made a stop on the Indiana lakefront to look for a barn owl found the day before feeding on a deer carcass. Amazingly he relocated the bird. So I am hereby suggesting that everyone retrieves the next roadkilled deer they encounter and put it in their backyard: next to the thistle feeder. Steve appeared and Jeanette seems to have arrived moments after our last check so she waited a bit before she too joined the group. And then our numbers were nearly doubled when Yu “Shrike” Zhang and two colleagues joined us. They are graduate students studying neuroscience at my alma mater Washington University and drove from St. Louis to look at cranes and other birds.

The seven of us were milling around looking at the waterfowl when a large, dark, and clunky bird appeared as it flew towards us. Jeanette spoke the words before anyone else did: “Black vulture!” Three of us were well armed with cameras but the only decent shots were taken by Shrike. Ken Brock told me later that this is the only the second record for Starke County, the previous sighting dating back to May 7, 1985. While it is exciting to see rare birds, even if it is well after their discovery, it is particularly satisfying to be a participant at the moment.

Black vulture (photo by Yu "Shrike" Zhan)

We then headed to Jas Pulas where the latest count tallied 8,000 cranes. It was a little early so we walked a mile or so to a lake that often has birds. Most of the year you can drive to the water but during hunting season, access of all kinds is limited. Our destination proved largely devoid of birds, with a few pied-billed grebe and some kind of duck that landed in the glaring water of a low sun. But we did encounter a long-time friend Randy Schietzelt, who was leading a field trip for the McHenry County Audubon Society. We also heard from another unexpected friend: Jeanette pointed out the notes of a spring peeper. (Not to be confused with the imaginary “Fall Peeper.”) In botany, there is a term for when a spring plant also blooms in fall “remantant blooming.”  Does anyone know what herpetologists call the parallel phenomenon we heard?

The viewing stand was filled with people, as is to be expected on warm Saturday nights in November. And is almost always the case, there was no one from the state providing any interpretation. Here you have masses of people from throughout the Midwest, a teaching moment if there ever was one, and no one to answer questions, which many people have since I wind up answering many of them.

The cranes were there too of course but the closest birds were farther away than usual. But squadrons of various sizes poured in from various directions, a few making the high pitch sounds that mark them  as immatures. Evantually, the flow of birds reverses, and large flocks ascend and head to the marshes where they spend the night. By then, most of the observers had also retreated.

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But one visit to Jas Pulas can hardly sate the crane within. If Project Passenger Pigeon does nothing else, it has brought me in touch with really neat people from across the country. One such person who lives but twenty or so minutes away is Dan Winter, Regional Director of the World Wildlife Fund. He tried to recruit some folks he knows for a trip but in the end it was only the two of us. I took the train into downtown Chicago. (At one point I was admonished by a transit employee that I could not put my scope and tripod on the platform as I waited for the train, but it would be ok if I held it.) It was pouring but fortunately over the two hours it took us to arrive at J-P, the precipitation was a light drizzle and then that subsided altogether.

Very different circumstances awaited us. A Tuesday evening of threatening weather drew less than ten visitors. But the cranes seemed to have increased and they occupied ground very close to the viewing platform. There were few large patches of field that lacked birds. While I could not find any the week before, flocks of turkey meandered amongst their taller neighbors. And again, there came the time when clouds of cranes arose, near the trees that mark the far border of the field, and began milling in the sky preparatory for the short flight to their nocturnal resting grounds. We turned and headed for dinner.

Blogger and Dan Winter on crane platform- dusk is settling in.

Another view of black vulture, second record for Starke County (Yu "Shrike" Zhang)