I go to Nebraska pretty much every year now…at least once in the spring…sometimes twice in March or early April. The trip is mainly to see the crane migration but it might also involve Prairie Chickens or Sharptail Grouse…all are birds I enjoy taking pictures of. On this last visit, I came across a new … Read more
The rain began around 3am and continued throughout the morning, but the cranes didn’t mind it at all. In fact they seemed to hang around the river longer because of it. Spending time with them you begin to pick up physical cues that they are about to depart. A few will do a kind of … Read more
You cannot totally appreciate the Platte River unless your feet are in it, or your eyes are above it. In either case it’s pretty much how the Sandhill Cranes experience it. This is an incredibly shallow river. Of course there are channels and pockets of depth, but in dry years it exposes a lot of … Read more
Before dawn is the best time to find the maximum number of cranes on the Platte river. At various points along an 80 mile stretch starting around Grand Island and going westward, there are places where you’d think you could never fit another bird in…these are popular hangouts with numerous shallow water sandbars. It’s a … Read more
This is the only image from my trips out to Nebraska that I’ve ever printed. I’m not sure why but I can say it’s one of my favorites. You can pull a lot of stories out of this one image. This pair of cranes is bonded, mating for life…they’ll spend much of their time together … Read more
One of the challenges with the Sandhill cranes on the Platte river is that some of them…well, many of them, will start their day pretty early. Many will depart off the river, even before the sun has risen. Couple that with the common fog that envelopes the river in the early hours, and you have … Read more