[birdky] RPT: From INDIANA ... Sandhill Cranes in Ewing Bottoms
- From: "Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EPPC OOS KNPC)" <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx>
- To: "BIRDKY" <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:49:29 -0500
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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