[div class="excerpt" style="border: solid 1px #cccccc; border-radius:0.5385em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #cccccc inset, 1px 1px 1px #cccccc;"]A rare and spectacular thing has happened along the Platte River west of Grand Island: People have seen and heard flocks of sandhill cranes in January.

About 1,000 sandhill cranes have overwintered along the river near the National Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary at Gibbon.

The majestic gray birds with red caps should be hundreds of miles south where it's warm at this time of year -- and not in Nebraska.

"I've been there 50 years and I've never seen it," said noted ornithologist and author Paul Johnsgard of Lincoln.

http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/sandhill-cranes-overwinter-on-platte-river/article_8ffa2a2c-f7c3-5f74-81ee-918ee9cca331.html\