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Greater Yellowstone Crane Festival

September 22 @ 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

| $15

Greater Yellowstone Crane Festival
Keynote Speaker and Documentary Film Screening

“I think sheer spectacle. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen … in the right moment … it’s just incredible … there’s nothing else like it.”

Join us for an exciting evening with Keynote Speaker Daniel P. Collins, followed by a screening of “Crane Song” a vibrant documentary about the Sandhill crane’s migration.

Daniel P. Collins, Migratory Game Bird Biologist, USFWS Southwest Region, will present on “Western Sandhill Crane Conservation and Management: Perspective from the last 10 years 2012-2022.” For the past 11 years, Dan has been involved in the research and monitoring of the Rocky Mountain and Lower Colorado River populations of Sandhill Cranes. He has trapped and marked over 1,000 cranes, flown fall surveys, conducted recruitment surveys, and been involved with many aspects of western Greater Sandhill Crane management and conservation at local, regional, and flyway scales.

After the talk, we’ll show “Crane Song,” a documentary by Nebraska Public Media. This is a stunning visual essay of the Sandhill Crane’s migration through Nebraska, weaving together striking images and majestic sounds of the birds’ journey with the stories and insights of the individuals who observe these creatures, as well as landowners endeavoring to ensure a habitat that is welcoming to the cranes.

Beer, wine, and snack bar concessions available for purchase at the theater.

BUY TICKETS AT THE BOX OFFICE

Tickets may also be purchased at the door

Evening Schedule

6:00 – 6:30 Mix and Mingle
6:30 Keynote Speaker, Daniel P. Collins
7:15 Break (concessions/drinks)
7:30 – 8:30 Crane Song film screening

About The Keynote Speaker

Daniel P. Collins
Migratory Game Bird Biologist
Southwest Regional Office
Albuquerque, NM

In 1994 I began attending a small college in Greensboro, NC where I played soccer and pursued a B.S. in Biology and minored in Chemistry. Upon my graduation in 1998 I was fortunate enough to play some low level professional soccer and was on the fast track to become a soccer coach. However, I decided against coaching and decided it was time to go back to school where I pursued my Master’s degree at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas where I conducted a basic ecological study on American badgers in south Texas. While in Texas I took as many field technician positions as I could where I worked on Gunnison sage grouse, gambels quail, mourning dove, mearns quail, and a few other projects where I helped out fellow graduate students. Wrapping my Master’s thesis up I took a position with The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas as a Fire Management Technician where I was a part of a 5 person Rx crew and burned over 20,000 acres in 9 months. As this seasonal position was coming to an end I threw my name in the hat for a Ph.D. position out of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX where I was the lucky candidate to investigate “Moist-soil management and its impacts to the vegetative, aquatic invertebrate, and waterfowl community on Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area”. Data collection complete and a rough draft of my dissertation handed into my major professor I started to pursue a full time career.

In 2008, I took a position as the Assistant to the Pacific Flyway Representative in Portland, Oregon. We dealt with the annual hunting regulations, survey and monitoring of game birds, and anything else we were directed to do. I was fortunate enough to participate in waterfowl banding in Canadian provinces, May Breeding Ground Surveys in the eastern Dakotas, and coordinate and participate in Aleutian CAGO monitoring to name a few. July 2011, I join the Migratory Bird Office in Albuquerque where I have been for the past 11 years now. I work on a variety of different species such as, northern pintail, mottled ducks, Mexican ducks, redhead ducks, white-faced ibis, and last but not least sandhill cranes. For the past 11 years, I have been involved in research and monitoring of the Rocky Mountain and Lower Colorado River Populations of greater sandhill cranes. I have been fortunate to trap and mark over 1000 cranes, fly fall surveys, conduct recruitment surveys, and be involved with many aspects of western greater sandhill crane management and conservation at local, regional, and Flyway scales.

I live in NE Albuquerque with my wife, Julia, son Daniel (16 years old), daughter Evelyn (13 years old), daughter Emily (8 years old) and dogs Pearl, Ruby, and Birdie. Outside of work I enjoy long distance trail running, photography, hiking, backpacking, hunting, fishing, and anything else that gets me/us out the door.

About The Film

Every year some 80 percent of the world’s Sandhill cranes make their way through a 75-mile stretch of Nebraska’s central Platte River Valley, a critical stopover in their 5,000-mile spring migration.

“Crane Song,” a vibrant documentary by Nebraska Public Media is a stunning visual essay of the Sandhill crane’s migration through Nebraska, weaving together striking images and majestic sounds of the birds’ journey with the stories and insights of the individuals who observe these creatures, as well as landowners endeavoring to ensure a habitat that is welcoming to the cranes.

Each spring, between February and April, hundreds of thousands of Sandhill cranes soar into Nebraska on a journey that cranes have taken since the end of the last ice age more than 20,000 years ago. With the surrounding cornfields providing ample food, the Platte River Valley is an ideal habitat for the birds, allowing them to prepare for the final push to their breeding grounds in the Arctic tundra.

But their habitat is at risk. Much of the Platte is no longer the broad shallow river it once was. Decreased water flow has led to the overgrowth of vegetation on the river’s sandbars, resulting in fewer spots for the cranes to spend the night safely away from predators.

Featuring spectacular and profound cinematography of the cranes, “Crane Song” introduces some of the people captivated by the birds, from some of the thousands who visit the Platte River Valley each year to observe the birds, to Nebraskan Michael Forsberg, one of the world’s premier crane photographers, as well as University of Nebraska-Lincoln paleontologist Mike Voorhies; Shelton, Neb., landowner Tony Hempleman, who has cleared vegetation from his property to improve the crane’s habitat; and ornithologist and author Paul Johnsgard, who has studied the birds for more than 40 years.

“You get this, not a cacophony but a symphony really, of all these wonderful sounds and these birds coming in as if they were sort of synchronized to music landing in the water,” Johnsgard says during the program.

Forsberg comments that, “I think sheer spectacle. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen… in the right moment… it’s just incredible… there’s nothing else like it.”

The program also visits the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo, Wis., where aviculturist Sara Zimorski explains how Sandhill cranes have been instrumental in saving the highly endangered Whooping crane.

“Crane Song” was made possible by the Elizabeth Rubendall Foundation, the Theodore G. Baldwin Foundation, Sandhills Publishing, Chief Industries, Inc. and the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust, Inc.