Taking pictures of Sandhill cranes and anything else that got in my way.

Warning ! Clicking the pics may expose you to various birds which are known to cause cancer in California.

Sandhill Cranes. I don't know why I enjoy seeing these Cranes so much, maybe it's because they're so big it's easier to get a picture of them. Or maybe it's the weird croaking noise they make when their standing around or flying, or it might even be the fact that most people never see them hanging around in the yard. But whatever it is I find them more interesting than most other birds so I don't mind driving long distances to get these pictures.

Well congratulations to me, my pictures and my blog post actually have the same theme. But it wasn't on purpose, and probably won't happen again.

I drove back to Monte Vista this morning and took a few more pictures. It's hard for me to get my pictures to turn out the way I want because whether the Sandhill cranes are flying or standing on the ground, they are far away from me.

I would say the closest I've been to a flying Crane is probably a couple of hundred feet, but most of them are 100 yards or more away from me when I take their pictures, which is a lot better than I've been able to do with Cranes actually on the ground.

The Cranes spend their day eating the leftover grain in farmer's fields that have been harvested. And seldom is that field they happen to be at anywhere near a public road. And even if it is near a public road, all the roads in farm country around here have a swale on both sides of the road and no shoulder, which means there's no place to pull over, your either on the road or you're in a ditch.

I've heard some Cranes talking to one another in the campground area I'm at right now, but I don't know where they are. A handful of them come flying in just about dark and land somewhere out in the swampy, brushy area not too far from me, but by then, it's dark, and I don't want to go walking around in a swamp in the dark... I might step on an Alligator..... Don't laugh! Unlike most of Colorado, around here it's possible.

                                                                        Theboondork

Today dawned still cloudy but a lot better than before. And with no rain predicted I can go running around looking for Sandhill Cranes and hoping they stand still long enough for me to take a picture.

And before you know it, there they are. Obviously going somewhere, to do something, for some reason or another. And that's the kind of detailed bird knowledge and expertise you can get only by reading this blog.

Most of the Sandhill Cranes fly in a group, but every once in a while a solitary Crane like this one would fly by which would make me kind of sad, knowing that they mate for life and this one is alone.

It was easy to get pictures of Geese, I think the Geese outnumbered the Cranes 10 to 1.

There was a Hawk of some kind, possibly one of those Seattle Seahawks, cruising overhead, obviously looking for breakfast.

This is about the best I could do getting a picture of Sandhill Cranes feeding in a farmers field. I just stopped in the middle of the road, and took a picture out the window of my truck of these cranes a couple of hundred yards away. Fortunately it was a farm road, and not very busy.

And speaking of roads around here, most of what I'm driving on are narrow two-lane blacktop's with no shoulder, and yet the speed limit is mostly 65 miles an hour, the same as  four-lane highways in Denver. And the farmers in their pickup trucks seems to think that 65 is the minimum allowed speed and have no problem blowing past me as fast as they can go. I assume they've got better, and more important things to do with their life than drive around taking pictures of birds.

In a month or so the Sandhill Cranes will be headed South probably down to the Bosque Del Apache near Socorro New Mexico where they will spend the Winter. I don't know why these birds picked that place because in the winter the Bosque is colder than a well diggers bell-bottoms. But despite the cold, there will be photographers from all over the world, and maybe even me, experiencing the unique environment that is the Bosque.