Sandhill Cranes

Earlier this week I headed for Nebraska to visit my family and travel with them to Kearney, Nebraska to view the migration of the Sandhill Cranes.  We all ride with my brother who has the largest vehicle (that uses the most gas).

We drove out one afternoon, took a side trip on the way to the motel via a dirt road where the cranes are feeding in fields on corn leftover from the Fall harvest.

 After checking into the motel and eating supper at a local restaurant, we returned to the same area where we walked out to an old railway bridge turned walking path over the Platte River and waited for nightfall when the cranes would come in to roost (?) for the night in the middle of the river where predators are less likely to reach them.

 

 We weren't close enough to see a lot of them but we could hear them up and down the river.




My sister brought her dog, Laska, so she and her husband stayed down nearer the bank of the river rather than on the bridge closer to the onlookers.  The rest of us went back and forth between the bridge and the bank.
 

 

 While we were hanging around talking, waiting for the sun to go down, an eagle flew over our heads...

...and then disappeared down the river to the west.

Next day we headed out to the blind at Rowe Audubon Sanctuary at 5:45am to watch the cranes wake up and fly away for another day of corn scavenging.

If you've never done this, you need to.  At least once.