Monday, March 29, 2010

Oh yeah!



And that is what we did on Sunday!

My honey and I, along with a few friends went to Grand Island area to see the Sandhill Cranes as they migrated through Nebraska. It's an annual event and much enjoyed by many people not just Nebraskans.

I actually went to the 8:30 a.m. church service so that we could head out early enough in the day to see the cranes. For those of you who know me... I'm NOT a morning person, at all! But I got up early and I was a somewhat functioning human being for church. By 11:30 we all were heading out towards Grand Island to go bird watching. There were two cars that went, ours held my honey, myself and our friend and another one that held 4 others friend's. We ended up eating lunch first and then driving around looking for the Cranes. We didn't see as many as we had hoped for but we saw enough to get a few good photo's. Well, my honey did anyhow. Most of mine were sadly out of focus. But my honey got some really good shots!

As gawky as they look on the ground... they fly so beautifully!



My friend, bound and determined to get near them...


I love this shot!


These three seemed to want to be photographed!

All in all it was difficult to get good shots of these birds without one of those super high powered lenses. They are super skittish. But it was pretty cool to be able to see them. I think next year we might go and spend the night in the area so that we can see them fly back to the Big Bend of the Platte River and then get up early (again) to see them fly out. They sleep at the river but then fly out to the corn fields to eat. About 95% of the cranes' diet is corn during this stopover. They do this for about three weeks and then they continue on their migration North.

We have been here for nearly 4 years and this was the first time we've gone to see this sight. I'm so glad we finally did it and it was made even more special because we went with friends!

I hope ya'll had a good weekend! ;-)

2 comments:

chellebelle said...

What great shots! It looks like a great time, and a beautiful place!

Corinnea said...

Cool, sounds like a fun day!Remember the herons nesting in the trees at Max Eyth See?