Thursday, October 17, 2013

Sandhill Cranes at Dusk

Sandhill Cranes at Dusk
In the fall Crex Meadows becomes a staging grounds for hundreds of sandhill cranes gathering to fly south for the winter. During the day they visit the farm fields, some of which are a part of Crex and others are in the surrounding area. They eat left over grains and insects building up their energy reserves for the long upcoming flight south. At night they stand in the shallow lakes and pools of Crex. The waters act as protection and alarm against ground based predators that might try and sneak up on the birds in the dark. The treat for us humans is in the morning and night when the cranes are flying out or returning. In this shot the sun had just sunk below the horizon. Birds were still coming in providing me with wonderful silhouette shots against the blaze orange sky. 


14 comments:

Louisette said...

Nice shot, greeting from Belgium

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

HI Wonderful shot of the cranes in glorious light

Laura said...

What a brilliant sky for the cranes to fly into... a gorgeous photo!

HansHB said...

A perfect SWF post, well done!

Jim said...

Good capture.

Anonymous said...

Nice shot.

genie said...

The sky is beautiful, but the cranes are awesome with their wings stretched. Amazing shot genie

genie said...

The sky is beautiful, but the cranes are awesome with their wings stretched. Amazing shot genie

Joyful said...

Fabulous capture of the birds in flight against the colourful sky.

Anonymous said...

What an amazing shot!

Indrani said...

Wow! Great shot!

Sivangj said...

Such a great capure !!
Wish you a nice weekend
Hugs from Siv

Joe said...

Love this SkyWatch Friday shot. Bravo!

Katrin Klink said...

Just beautiful ...