[birdky] Re: RPT: From INDIANA ... Sandhill Cranes in Ewing Bottoms

Hey, we should be able to check the sandhills out up there In southern Indiana 
late Monday afternoon. By the way last week we observed the most ever on our 
farm here in Muhlenberg Co., KY. They were only 150 ft. overhead and formed 
half of a V which must have been 1000 ft. long. Lot of sandhills!

Preston Forsythe 

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kirchhoff, Fred (EPPC DEP DWM) 
  To: Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EPPC OOS KNPC) ; BIRDKY 
  Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 11:09 AM
  Subject: [birdky] Re: RPT: From INDIANA ... Sandhill Cranes in Ewing Bottoms


  I'm like you Brainard ~ I'm heading up that way this afternoon for a weekend 
business trip.  I'm taking my camera and hoping to stop by Sunday and get some 
pictures.

  Fred Kirchhoff



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: birdky-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:birdky-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EPPC OOS KNPC)
  Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 10:49 AM
  To: BIRDKY
  Subject: [birdky] RPT: From INDIANA ... Sandhill Cranes in Ewing Bottoms


  I can just never get enough of Sandhill Cranes ... and I'm not sure how many 
folks reading BIRDKY may not be keeping up with the potential for fantastic 
crane viewing just an hour north of Louisville in Jackson County, Indiana. My 
mother and I went up to the Ewing Bottoms yesterday afternoon and were treated 
to a wonderful display from the still relatively large flocks there (recently 
there were as many as 11,000!). If anyone is interested in knowing how to get 
to this area, I can email you a pdf of a crude area map or you might print off 
a Jackson County, IN, map from somewhere on the internet to use. There's also 
usually a post or two on INBIRD every week concerning the status of the numbers 
(the entire area occasionally becomes inaccessible due to flooding).

  All you need to do is go north to exit 41 on I-65 from Louisville; follow IN 
250 west about 13 miles to Brownstown; go straight (west) on US 50. The main 
flocks are usually just northwest of town (Brownstown and Ewing are essentially 
"twin cities"). Once on US 50, take a right about a mile down at the "Ewing" 
sign; then take a left at the first stop sign, go over the RR tracks and then 
over the White River bridge. The birds are sometimes (as yesterday) right along 
one of the rural roads here (yesterday most were north of 100N as you headed 
west from the bridge). However, yesterday, the biggest flock was actually to 
the south of US 50, about 4-5 miles west of Brownstown and were found by simply 
scanning the horizon and watching for circling/dropping flocks that were 
settling into feeding areas. There are many small county roads in the area that 
usually allow you decent access to any flocks you may see settling in in the 
distance.

  Not sure how long the flocks will remain in the area; yesterday we saw at 
least 3500 and probably closer to 5000 between the two largest flocks. 
Occasionally we would run across a tame family group that would be feeding not 
30-50 feet from the road.

  If anyone more familiar with the site notices I've gotten anything wrong 
here, please correct me.

  bpb, Frankfort


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