Thursday, March 17, 2011

Wings across the Plains


As noted in yesterday's post on the annual Sandhill Crane migration, about 500,000 of these large birds pause here in Nebraska for several weeks before their final push northward. After taking yesterday's photo in a cornfield along the Platte River, we moved on to the Fort Kearney hiking/biking bridge across the Platte. And there we waited, on a very cold day, to watch the many waves of crane flocks sailing in overhead as they set down for their evening roost along the sandbars. If you enlarge the picture, you may notice several threads or ribbons of crane formations as they were coming in by the thousands from a day of feeding in nearby cornfields. The calls, whoops and chatter coming from such large numbers for so long, so close overhead, was a memorable "chilling" experience
A contributor to the Sky Watch Friday community

10 comments:

nonizamboni said...

Great capture--well worth the cold wait. And I know how 'noisy' these guys can be in a group!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful event.

Sylvia K said...

Fantastic shot, Raf! Definitely worth waiting for! And what glorious skies and colors! Really dramatic! Hope you have a great weekend!

Sylvia

EG CameraGirl said...

This is a WOW! photo, Raf!

VALKYRIEN said...

Wonderful photo of a fantastic sky! And those birds flying - awesome!

Irene said...

Perfect shot! A gorgeous sky with flying birds!

Light and Voices said...

What a shot...sandhill cranes outlining the sky. Love it!
Joyce M

Laura said...

stunning photo...life moving forward!

Kim, USA said...

I would not mind waiting for this right time. This sky is fantastic!
Sky Watch Friday

Jidhu Jose said...

Nice shot
happy SWF

My Sky Watch Friday

Unknown said...

what a spectacular photo! 'tsunami' popped into my head when i look at the dark clouds.:p