Looking for Sandhills

Big Sky Over Cow Pasture

Crawford County

This afternoon I set out on an adventure of sorts. I had heard through the electronic grapevine that someone had spotted some Sandhill Cranes around 25 miles or so west of town . Folks thought there had never been such a sighting in Crawford county. I've never seen one in the wild. Ive always wanted to travel to Nebraska or New Mexico when there are thousands for the Crane Festivals held at those locations each year. So I loaded up some drinks, cameras binoculars and a topographic atlas (very handy for country driving) and headed west. My trusty old pickup is well beyond its years but I knew it would get me at least there and well whats a few miles to walk to the nearest town if youve seen cranes?

Well I found them! Believe it or not there are three Sandhill Cranes feeding leasurely in this wheat field about 500 yards away. They were feeding close to a marshy area in the field. I watched them for around twenty minutes through my binoculars. As they fed they moved very slowly but deliberatly almost in unison. One was slightly bigger than the other two. Soon a car approached with three other birders. We all sat and watched another five minutes or so and then they pulled up to my truck. We exchanged hellos and I noticed they had driven from over in Missouri. The driver a young woman asked " Did I know what I was looking at"? I wanted to say Wheat growing, but I held back, "oh yes, three of them". We agreeded they were extrodinary birds. She had gotten the same email as me, good news travels fast among birders in SE Kansas thanks to the efforts of some good folks. I watched for a while until the cranes moved behind some tall grass. I decided to head back along dirt roads and explore a little.

Lightning Creek

Crawford County

I stopped a few times and too some photos. My truck ran like a top.





Heres a photo of some sandhills you can actually see courtesy of National Geographics site.
There is also some great information and videos about them there as well;
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/cranecam/highlights01.html