You are lucky to live in an area with sandhill cranes. I'm expecting the hooded orioles to arrive soon (budget for more sugar!). But then the white crowned sparrows will be leaving, :( and their songs will no longer entertain. I stop feeding seed when the sparrows leave, and the fat fox squirrels will have to eat elsewhere.

The cranes are definately around. At their major stop-over points on the S. Platte in western Nebraska (in their namesake "Sandhill's" region, where 80% of the sandhill cranes migrate through every year) and the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado there are thousands of them.

I went to see the massive flocks in the San Luis Valley a couple years ago, it was incredible. A lot of these guys spend their winters in southern New Mexico and Arizona (Bosque Del Apache NWR and Whitewater Draw are two great places to see them on their wintering grounds) and move north rather early, starting in mid-late February and in Colorado and Nebraska, their peak numbers are in mid March. We have them fly over the house in spring and fall, but despite having some amazing wetlands/sloughs on the east side of the property we live on, they never land here. Most of the time, I only know they are around from the sound coming from way up in the stratosphere. I'm going back to the Valley in a couple weeks to see them again, but here's a couple shots I got last time I was there. It's funny to think these guys are closely related to coots!

Sandhill Cranes and the San Juan Mountains, Monte Vista NWR, Colorado
Sandhill cranes Monte Vista NWR, Colorado

No vultures reported in Colorado yet, but the mountain bluebirds are here! I saw a flock of about 20 at work on Monday. Unfortunately they only wanted to pose on the fence and my photos aren't what I wish they were... Shorebirds have also started to trickle in, someone reported a greater yellow legs at the refuge I work at this week. The diving ducks are also congregating en-masse on their way north to breed. I love watching the goldneyes do their mating ritual!

Mountain Bluebird, Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR, Colorado
Common goldeneye mating display, Colorado (it's an old picture, from before I had nice equipment, so it's not the best, but I still love it!)

Great pics, Zach! That one of the sandhills in front of the mountains is magnificent!

I've heard that sometimes one might see a whopping crane traveling with them, but I never have. Yeah, sometimes they are so high you can't see them, while other times they are lower. It's fun to see them converge in the sky from different directions, then fly away together. One year, about 35 years ago, they landed in a cut corn field near hear. It was so cool! (Except my neighbor who stopped by me to see them said "Dang, I wish I had my gun.") :(

There is a place in northern Indiana, north of us, where the sandhills land and congregate, then take off for a nearby marsh for the night on their trek north (or is it south??) . We went a couple years and it was pretty impressive. In the evening, before sunset, they slowly start to land in this field, coming in from all directions, until there are something like 40,000 of them. It's a pretty cool sight!

I was hoping to easily find the video of I took of them flying over our house one year. It was almost deafening. I'll try to find it. Unfortunately, I have thousands of pics and videos that I never put into different files...they're just all IMG's. Don't know why I did that. Anyhow Zach, your pics are beautiful!

P.S.....I just found a pic of mine I took awhile back. It was during the day, and I wasn't sure it would turn out 'cause they were so close to the sun and it was bright......but it turned out ok.

Zach, you are so kind to share your photos and knowledge all the time. I'm sure many people are very grateful. Thank you.

Catherine, sooooo beautiful a picture! More, more.

Pat

Thank you Pat, I appriciate that! The pictures dont do a lot just sitting on my computer, they aren't worth taking if I can't share them! I'm grateful to be able to share what I can with you all!

I used to hunt geese and ducks, and still hunt rabbits. Mostly to keep them out of my garden, but I have a rule about only killing things you intend to eat so they end up on the menu at our house. I don't have any issue with legal and ethical hunting and I know there are quite a few people who hunt cranes. They say it is the filet mignon of the sky. I would probably try it if somone served it to me but some animals I really just can't imagine killing myself. I would never shoot a crane, even if I did intend to eat it. Rabbit suits me just fine.

40,000 is a LOT of cranes! Hiw very awesome to have seen that many! We get flocks of just a few to may up to 30-40 here at our house in north-central Colorado. The really big flocks are, like I said, further east in Nebraska and southwest in the mountain valleys and out on the western side of the State. Every few years, if our wetlands are full, the cranes land at work and spend a few days, usually on their southward fall migration.

I think whooping cranes have been reported in the Nebraska flocks, but they are hard to find with their habit of migrating as small family groups and their much smaller population size (I think they are up to around 350 indeviduals now. Considering they were down to just a handful, thats a pretty amazing success though!). At one time they attempted to integrate whooper chicks with the sandhill flocks to help with recovery. But they found that once they matured, they thought they were sandhills and wouldn't mate with the other whoopers!

Beautiful shot, Catherine! It reminds me of what Aldo Leopold once wrote:

"one swallow does not make a summer. But a skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw is the spring."