Greater Sand Hill Cranes

Jeremy and I had fun housesitting. The cat was a bit more difficult than normal. We had to try two separate attempts to get the pill to go down on Saturday night. But we were successful. All the animals seemed to be a bit testy or to have attitudes. There were a couple hissing moments, stare-downs, and general intimidation tactics used throughout the weekend. Everyone came away unharmed.

On Saturday, Jeremy and I went to the Crane Festival in Monte Vista held the first weekend of March. This is a hot spot for the Greater Sand Hill Cranes on their migration routes both in the fall in then pre-spring. The festival itself was pretty lame. The craft show was tiny. They did have some live birds - a small raptor (I forget the name of), a red tailed hawk, and an owl.

The highlight was going out to the areas where the cranes might be seen. The first route we took was pretty uneventful. We saw this one lonely crane in the picture to the left. Then, we tried a new route and hit the mother lode! You can see in the top right picture the flock (is that what a group of cranes is called?) on the ground with more flying in. It was pretty cool to see so many in one place. As we continued to another area, we saw many flying overhead. We watched as their patterns changed - V formations emerging and then disintegrating. They make lots of noise as they fly as well. We also managed to see a porcupine from afar and an owl perched in a tree.