Sandhill Cranes

Every spring, hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes converge along the Platte River basin in the Nebraska flyway to rest and refuel before their journey to the northern reaches of Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. By day they’re chowing down in corn fields. At night the rest in the river.

We didn’t have the long lenses necessary to fully capture the experience. Imagine, if you will, walking out to a blind in the near pitch-black of early morning. You can’t see a thing, but you can hear.

As the light comes up it looks like the river is full of sand bars. With more light, those bars become birds. Then those birds start to take off.

In the evening, the reverse happens. Notice the sky at the end of this short video.

MVI_6280 from Deborah & Wayne on Vimeo.