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Nesting of the Sandhill Crane in Modoc County, California

Ralph Hoffmann

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On May 6, 1926, a Mr. Christensen showed me the nest of a Sandhill Crane (Grus mexicana) on his ranch about twenty miles from Alturas. The nest was in a small patch of tules (Scirpus) in a wet meadow. When we approadhed the nest, the female (?) rose, disclosing two eggs, and flew to the meadow a short distance off. The male (?) rose from the tules and joined her. We followed and the two birds walked ahead of us, making no sound till they were about half a mile from the nest, when they began to “crank”. The nest was made of dead tule stems, was about five feet in diameter at the base, and the central portion, built up so that the eggs were about one foot above water, was about two feet across and almost flat. Mr. Christensen had fltished the female from the nest about ten days before, when she was already incubating two eggs.

Mr. Joseph Mailliard (Condor, XXVI, 1924, p. 216) has recorded the finding of a nest and of a half-grown young in Surprise Valley in 1924. With this exception, there seems to be no definite record of the nesting of the species in California since 1878 (see Game Birds of California, p. 621).

Carpinteria, California, Januay 1, 1927

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