VICTOR, Idaho — Sandhill crane followers flocked from as far as Florida and New York this September to Teton Valley to catch the four-foot prehistoric creatures dancing and trumpeting amid the grain fields at the foot of the Big Holes.
The annual migration, according to Teton Regional Land Trust’s Niah Pennington, saw a peak count of 1,331 cranes on Sept. 25. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s annual count also counts staging areas across the region where the different flocks return summer after summer in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming.
A total of 25,316 cranes were counted at 89 survey sites in 2025, according to the Service’s Division of Migratory Bird Management, with the highest concentrations observed in Montana and Idaho. Despite widespread drought and above-normal temperatures, the 2025 crane population estimate was the third-highest total recorded in the survey’s history. Pennington said this year’s numbers will not be published until early next year, “but the numbers we saw for Teton Valley were similar to last year.”
On the tour, Madison Jacks, engagement associate for Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT), called Teton Valley the second-most important ecosystem within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for its unique high mountain wetlands.
The observation survey has been going on for quite some time, according to Pennington. The partnership with Fish and Wildlife provides flyover data as well as numbers on the ground at the various plots around Teton Valley — which are all on the west side of the Teton River. Coincidence? Not really. The soil shelf of volcanic till on the Big Hole side of the valley is indicative of the river’s geology and good farmland.
“I think cranes are a species that has worldwide and even ancient cultural importance,” said TRLT Executive Director Kim Trotter, pointing out that crane art dates back thousands of years.
“It’s my favorite morning of the spring when you wake up to the cranes from your home,” she shared. “We almost always have a nesting pair up Teton Canyon, and I can hear those cranes from my house.”
The key to maintaining Teton Valley’s unique high elevation wetland is to ensure the birds still have plenty to eat. The land trust’s Greater Yellowstone Sandhill Crane Initiative, which is celebrated during Crane Week’s many events, is a supplemental feeding program that ensures birds’ stopover in eastern Idaho during their 3,000-mile journey remains an important pre-migration staging zone before they head south to the Mexico-New Mexico border.
Trotter and the land trust have been spearheading an endowment since the USDA ceased subsidizing farmers for grain cut and then left. As their own program, the crane initiative has enabled the land trust to orchestrate longer-term contracts with farmers.
“When we’re negotiating that per-acre value, we know that we’re locked in at that value, even if fuel costs are going up or weather is unpredictable; they’re locked in for a three-year program,” Trotter told Buckrail. The cycle also mimics standard three-year crop rotation practices for farmers, creating an organic cadence. TRLT is currently fundraising for $1.25 million to establish their Sandhill Crane Initiative permanently.
The fund safeguards vital habitat, enhancing and protecting key habitats across private, state, and federal lands to ensure cranes have access to the foraging, roosting and loafing sites they require, Trotter explained.
“And establishing grain lure crops compensates for habitat loss, mitigates agricultural conflicts, and provides reliable food resources during critical staging periods and habitat use patterns — what this does is provide consistency and security … and we are here to protect this habitat, not only for today, but for future generations,” added Trotter.
According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the Teton Basin area also offers significant habitat for over 42 Species of Greatest Conservation Need, which includes the long-billed curlew, wintering trumpeter Swans, and year-round habitat for Columbian sharp-tailed grouse.
The Thursday morning crane tour gave birdwatchers the chance to see an interesting wildlife interaction: a coyote crossing the field into a flock of feeding cranes in South Bates. Despite all of the commotion, the birds remained unaffected by the coyote — the same cannot be said for human disturbance. With the installation of the fiber optic line around Teton Valley this summer, the land trust said the birds were not in their normal spots for observation and were often farther south.
Days later, expert birders Christian Cooper and Jennifer Ackerman came to the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts to share that same sentiment at an event hosted by public radio program BirdNote and local community radio station KHOL. Cooper implored the audience to always consider native flora over traditional lawns and landscaping; even if it’s an urban rooftop, “wild it” with native plants.
Victor resident Suzanne Boots Knighton, a birdwatcher since her undergrad days in North Carolina State University’s biology program, said she left KHOL’s BirdNote “really inspired.”
“I just realized that there’s just so much more to learn about birds, and my big takeaway from that night was how scientists are reconsidering the intelligence of birds and how they used to think they weren’t intelligent but that we’ve just been thinking about intelligence wrong,” she told Buckrail from her home overlooking Game Creek.
Knighton said there are days when she’s counted 26 different species of bird on her property.
“Living in Game Creek, we have sandhills that nest up the creek below us every year, like clockwork, they show up about the same week every April,” she said. Knighton drove to the Gulf of Mexico last winter to see the cranes in their winter habitat. “I just think that they are a great indicator of how healthy our ecosystem is.”
