My First Of Year Sandhill Crane
While I was at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago, I heard and saw my first Sandhill Crane of the year. The calling crane was in flight, way off in the distance.
While I was at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago, I heard and saw my first Sandhill Crane of the year. The calling crane was in flight, way off in the distance.
Yesterday, on the way to the Uinta Mountains, April Olson and I looked for birds in the Kamas Valley. That's where I took these Sandhill Crane photos.
I've been thinking a lot about Sandhill Cranes recently so I am going back in time to nine years ago today when I photographed them in Wayne County, Utah.
I heard through the grapevine that Sandhill Cranes have returned to Farmington Bay WMA. Since the cranes are there they might be at other Utah locations too.
While up in the mountains yesterday morning I was thrilled to take a series of female and male Sandhill Crane portraits as they fed in a pasture next to the road.
Yesterday morning I spent ten minutes taking Sandhill Crane images high in the Wasatch Mountain Range after finding a pair of cranes next to an alpine creek.
I took this adult Sandhill Crane photo earlier this week as the crane foraged for food in a grassy horse pasture high up in the Wasatch Mountains.
Late last month I mentioned that I hadn't yet gotten the Tundra Swan photos that I wanted to take. Yesterday at Bear River MBR I was delighted to remedy that situation.
One of the other things that made me upset with Bob the Sandhill Crane being killed is that this could have been prevented.
Yesterday morning while up in the Wasatch Mountains I heard Sandhill Cranes calling repeatedly and when I spotted them I also found a Coyote near the cranes.
I spent a few minutes photographing Sandhill Cranes twice yesterday, once not long after sunrise and then later in the morning.
It was the highlight of my morning to find, observe, listen to, and photograph ten Sandhill Cranes at Bear River MBR yesterday.
In 2020 I had my first of year Sandhill Crane sighting on February 23rd. This morning I can barely wait to see and hear Sandhill Cranes again.
I was delighted to hear the Sandhill Cranes calling yesterday. Their bugling calls touch me and remind me that I am every bit a part of nature as the cranes are.
I was very excited to spot my first of year Sandhill Cranes yesterday near the causeway to Antelope Island where a pair of the cranes were foraging on the flats of the Great Salt Lake.
I was drawn to this photo because of the light on the Sandhill Crane and the grasses it was foraging in plus how that contrasts with the dark shadows on the mountains behind the bird.
The last couple of times I have gone to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and further north of there I have been so happy to hear and see, even if from a long distance, the return of our Sandhill Cranes.
I'm excited that the American Avocets, American White Pelicans and Sandhill Cranes have returned to northern Utah because I look forward to seeing and photographing them again.
I saw and photographed a mated pair of Sandhill Cranes yesterday morning in the marsh from the auto tour loop and watched them search for food.
Even though I can't see them with my eyes as I write this I can imagine Sandhill Cranes waiting for the first rays of the sun to reach the marshes where they spent the night.
We still have our winter birds and the spring migrants have begun their journey north so my bird photography is likely to pick up and get exciting soon if the clouds will give me a break.
I'm dreaming of seeing Greater Sage-Grouse, Sandhill Cranes and White-tailed Prairie Dogs as spring warms up the sagebrush steppe.
This is National Wildlife Refuge Week and in celebration I wanted to do a pictorial essay that includes some of my images of the Birds of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
Another change that has officially occurred was that Sandhill Cranes were moved from the genus Grus to Antigone.
I was photographing a pair of cranes foraging on the ground when a pair of Sandhill Cranes calling in flight flew over and I took a series of images of them.
My life is great whenever I can photograph a pair of Sandhill Cranes wherever I find them and yesterday I had these beauties in my viewfinder.
The Sandhill Crane colts at Farmington Bay are as tall as their parents and look just like them except for the markings on their head and the color of their bills and eyes.
Yesterday I posted a juvenile Wilson's Phalarope and today I am posting an assortment of others birds I photographed the same day at Bear River NWR.
I always think of Sandhill Cranes whenever my thoughts drift to the Centennial Valley of Montana where I always hear their calls, see them in the fields or in flight over the marshes.
Last night I only had dreams about Sandhill Cranes but it won't be long before I will be seeing and hearing them for real. I can barely wait.