A tale of two rivers

 

Two rivers – 200 miles apart – and yet worlds apart in their makeup and the wildlife that lives along them. 

 

 Above are scenes from the Platte River near Grand Island, Nebraska, where we saw thousands and thousands of sandhill cranes either preparing to take flight and head to the nearby fields to spend the day “fattening up” for their continuing migration to Canada, Alaska (and even Siberia), or landing for the night.  Three different days we went to various blinds along the Platte to watch the cranes either at  dawn, or coming in at the end of the day to settle on the river for the night.

The Platte has the reputation of being “a mile wide and an inch deep,” perfect for the cranes to be “in” the water as well as “on” the water – and safe from predators.  The migration during the last couple weeks of March and early in April brings upward of 700 thousand of them to this stretch of river and is one of the great animal migrations in the world.

 

Meanwhile, this scene is almost straight north along the Missouri River separating Nebraska and South Dakota.  There we saw just a few birds on this stretch between Yankton and Vermillion, South Dakota.  There, the river also is wide – often a half mile or more – and it is deep enough to handle large boats, barges and even the old-fashioned paddle boats as they move up and down the river.  But no cranes.

Just like that they had determined that this wasn’t the “right” river for them, and so they veered off and continued their trek north. 

And, it was amazing how quickly the temperatures changed in just 200 miles.  It was up to 70 degrees along the Platte, but barely over 30 at the Missouri.  It was a tale of two rivers and two inspiring scenes on our travels along two waterways that determined how the western United States was settled by the explorers and pioneers who followed their routes.  Inspiration, for writers’ moments.

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