Migrations will always be fascinating to me. We are surrounded by migrators…from butterflies and hummingbirds to cranes and bald eagles, there are so many creatures that call one place home for nesting and another for wintering. And for some it’s a long, long way between the two. For example, out of the various crane species … 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
Some cranes, most likely the elders of the of the group, show a form of confidence that can only come through years of trial mixed with the tribulation of overcoming most everything. They are, or should I say, become, an incredibly durable bird. Migration flights of thousands of miles. Enduring all kinds of weather, from … Read more