Sandhill crane migration Sauvie Island
— the cranes come back through in October.
Not only on a wall.
“A flat agricultural island at the meeting of the Willamette and the Columbia, just downstream of Portland. From late October through November and again in February and March, sandhill cranes stage in the fields along Reeder Road and Rentenaar Road on their way south and back north along the Pacific Flyway. At dusk they call across the pumpkin fields and lift in long ragged lines toward the river to roost.
Sandhill crane migration Sauvie Island, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Sauvie Island sits at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers about ten miles downstream of central Portland, in Multnomah and Columbia counties. It covers roughly 26,000 acres and is among the largest river islands in the United States. The northern two-thirds of the island form the Sauvie Island Wildlife Area, managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife since the 1940s. The southern third is farmed in berries, pumpkins, and small grains. A single lift bridge from Highway 30 crosses the Multnomah Channel.
Sandhill cranes pass through Sauvie Island twice a year on the Pacific Flyway. Fall arrivals begin in late September and peak through October and November, with counts running into the low thousands in some years; spring birds move back north through February and March. The wintering population mixes Greater Sandhill Cranes with smaller Lesser subspecies. Tundra swans, snow geese, and dusky Canada geese share the same fields. Mid-October through mid-November holds the most reliable evening fly-ins at Coon Point.
On a still autumn evening the rattling bugle of sandhill cranes carries across a mile of pumpkin field before you see the birds themselves. They cross the Columbia at a low slant just after sunset, in lines and Vs that re-form as they go, and drop into the shallow lakes of the wildlife area to roost. The morning lift-off runs the same shape in reverse. The bird call is older than almost anything else flying; the species fossil record reaches back about 2.5 million years.