The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy. On March 12th, my friend Brian and I went to photograph the Sandhill Cranes in Hall County, NE. I grew up in the area of Grand Island but had only experienced the crane migration via dirt road wanderings during daylight hours. We had reserved a spot in on of the blinds at Nebraska Nature and Visitor Center for the evening. I was so excited to get out there since it had been a couple of years since my last trip to the area during migration. AND I was excited to be able to share this with someone whom had never been so I could experience their reaction to the immenseness of the number of birds.
We spent most of our day driving the dirt roads to photograph the cranes in the fields. During our drive, we stopped at Mormon Island to see the massive flock of Snow and Canada geese that had decided to make the lake there home for a little while.We then went to the Nature Center for the blind in the late afternoon. We were seated and ready at the blind at 6:30 with the knowledge that the cranes usually do not come into the river until after sunset. I have to say that if you just want to experience the immenseness of the cranes, aka not photograph, the evening blind is the way to do it. The cranes fly from field to field in stages before coming in to roost (?). It looks like a massive swarm moving from one area to the next. And the sound...the wonderful calls of the birds...is deafening. There were times that I had goosebumps from the pure excitement. As darkness settled in and obscured the birds from our sight, I just closed my eyes and listened. Call me crazy, but that is one of the best experiences of my life. I had a smile on my face that was impossible to wipe off.
On March 14th, I flew out to San Francisco on business and spent 4 days. It was great to be out of the office for a while. I had a room on the 9th floor of the Embassy Suites in So. San Francisco and had a great view of the San Bruno Hills.
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