2024 Crane Count

Atherton Tablelands

It’s coming up to that time of year again. The annual Crane Count will be held on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 September this year. We would love for you all to join us again for an evening of counting cranes followed by a meal at the Malanda Hotel. There won’t be a talk this year following the count but there will be a slideshow showing off the fabulous birds of our region, made up of photographs taken by attendees of the Atherton Tablelands Bird Photography Group led by Al Sweet. And, we will of course do a tally of all the birds counted at the end of the evening. If you would like to come along and enjoy the fun of counting cranes as they come in to roost please fill out this Google form:

Google form

For those who are not aware, we carry out two surveys on Saturday the 7th. The main one is the roost count from 4:00 pm onwards and the other is an earlier count, consisting of driven transects between 12:00 am – 2:00 pm. For this, earlier count we only require a few people so places on this are limited. The evening count is the main event and the one where most volunteers are needed. Please indicate on the google form which one you are interested in (you can, of course, do both). The count on the 7th covers the area of the tablelands from Mareeba in the north to Ravenshoe in the south.

The count on Sunday, 8 September is carried out around the Innot Hot Springs area. Spaces on this count are limited as there are few sites in this area but please let us know if you are interested.

Ed Bell and Sanne Boland

Crane Project Leaders