3 January 2026

Sandhill Cranes on the move:

On New Year’s Day three people in Allegheny County heard and saw a large flock of sandhill cranes flying south. Cranes are so unusual in Pittsburgh that they spawned Rare Bird Alerts.

Steve Gosser captured a photo of them over his backyard. (Blue sky!)

It is likely this flock contains birds that Steve saw in northwestern PA in December.

I thought Steve’s sighting was a One Day Wonder but yesterday Amy Henrici and Pat McShea saw a similar-sized sandhill crane flock circling over Aspinwall Riverfront Park. Look closely at Amy’s photo at top and you’ll notice that one of the cranes is missing a leg.

I was sorry to miss the cranes because I’m out of town, but what I saw here made up for it.

Snow Geese on the move:

Yesterday while on Route 222 near Breinigsville, Lehigh County, PA I saw thousands of snow geese flying west, bunching up, circling and coming in to land. This photo from Wikimedia is very similar to what I saw. I tried to count. 10,000?

I followed them to nearby cornfields and took photos with my cellphone.

Dark phase snow geese in the flock used to be called “blue” goose.

Why such massive bird migration into southern Pennsylvania?

Snow geese and sandhill cranes can stay north as long as there’s food but they move south when the ground is so snow covered that they cannot forage.

For instance the eastern North America population of snow geese overwinters in Atlantic coastal areas from Cape Cod to North Carolina but will stay in eastern PA if there’s not a lot of snow.

Sandhill cranes have a small breeding population in northwestern PA that will stay year-round if it can.

However, in the past three days a lot of snow fell in upstate New York and northwestern PA. There are more than 30 inches on the ground in Oswego County, NY!

My hunch is that the weather drove both species south but the snow will melt very soon. At Volant where Steve took the sandhills’ photo last month, the temperature will rise to 40°F on Tuesday and keep going to 56°F on Friday.

By midweek these birds can all go home.