Speaking of Climate Change.......

[CathyA]

I usually see these sandhill cranes flying back north in another month or 2, but I saw these a week ago.

[CathyA]

I heard some more today. We are so lucky to live under their migration flyway. Their call is so distinctive. They usually fly so high that it's hard to see them. But these were pretty low.

[Rogar]

Cranes are great. We get a few high fly-over flocks here and you can hear them way before a sharp eye can pick them out of the sky. I haven't heard of any sightings yet this year.

[CathyA]

Hey Rogar........I've heard that sometimes an occasional whooping crane flies with them. Have you ever seen any? I haven't had the pleasure.

[Rogar]

No. They fly over so high that it would be hard to tell. There are some wildlife refuges in the southern part of Colorado where the Sandhills stop over but I think the Whoopers are rare and part of an unsuccessful program to reintroduce them into the populations. I've forgotten some of the details, but they were placing whooper eggs from captive birds into sandhill nests hoping they would survive and prosper but it hasn't worked out.

[CathyA]

They used to have something like a whooping crane stop-over place here in our county, where the guy flying the flock of sandhill cranes and/or whoopers would land and they would take care of them for a day or two and then they would follow the light airplane thing south. The people caring for them would dress like whooping cranes themselves and not let anyone else around them. But I haven't heard anything about that for several years.
One year (around l983), a flock of sandhills landed in my neighbor's field. That was fun.

Here's the closest pic I've gotten of them. I wish I knew how to post an audio, since I have some great ones of them flying over and making lots of noise. Their call is unique.

[CathyA]

I forgot to add that about 50 miles north of here is a stop-over migration place of the sandhills. We've gone a couple times in October to see them. It's absolutely amazing. Towards sunset, they start flying in and landing in this big field, from all directions. There's something like 30,000-40,000 of them. They interact with each other for awhile, and then fly somewhere else close by for the night, on their treks southward. Nature is so cool!

[bae]

That must be stunning to see 10s of thousands at once!

My great grandfather told me amazing tales of the bounty of waterfowl migrations when he was a boy, when the sky would be covered for days. I hope things recover enough that our grandchildren can see such things again some day.

[frugal-one]

That must be stunning to see 10s of thousands at once!

My great grandfather told me amazing tales of the bounty of waterfowl migrations when he was a boy, when the sky would be covered for days. I hope things recover enough that our grandchildren can see such things again some day.

Last year we stopped in Wilcox, AZ and saw around 30,000 in a field "grazing". We just went to the Visitor's Bureau/Chamber and they could tell us where they were last seen. We were the only people there witnessing this. Initially there were around 10,000 and then the sky became dark and about another 20,000 arrived. The sound was amazing too. We talked to people we know that live in AZ and they did not even know about this???? Supposedly, the birds are there Jan-March.

[creaker]

62 in Boston today - other than bits of snow left here and there, it could be a nice day in early May.