Sandhill Cranes

[OWGEM]

Shooter, I really like that sunset photo!

 

[shooter521]

Shooter, I really like that sunset photo!

SunRISE, brother! That was the morning fly-out. I have another where the sun is centered and looks nice, but it has fewer birds in it.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

When I lived/worked in the Jasper/Pulaski county areas, I used to look forward to seeing them on their stop overs in the spring and fall. I would roll my windows down and turn off the radio just to listen to the calls. Have seen literally thousands of them at a time in the bean and corn fields up there. Always many more than at the 'Official' viewing area a JPFW. If you really want to take in that awesomeness, take a drive through the country near the county line. It's well worth it.
BTW: I've been seeing robins in my yard for about two weeks. Yes, the birds know.

Went to Jasper/Pulaski for the fall migration staging on a college field trip in '87. The Sand-Hill Cranes were awesome.

I don't see but very few in the spring migration over my place in Delaware Co. but it seems like I've learned to associate hearing their familiar croaking call far over head when I'm splitting firewood every fall. I might have to make it a point to head up there next fall and take it all in again, it is very cool.

btw - I did see the first Red-Winged Blackbirds on Saturday, this past.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Robins & geese - yeah I'm not too sure what the reason is but they just don't leave the Indy area anymore. They look pitiful when you see them all hunkered down in the freezing wind and snow. I can't understand why either if them don't fly south like they used to. Highly adaptable or just plain lazy. The geese especially sitting on a frozen pond, ridiculous.

As far as the Robins go, a big reason more of them stay around is the abundance of those little crab apples that have become so common in landscaping. I remember some years back I was doing a thing in Oklahoma in early March and our crew would see enormous flocks of migrating Robins moving through the area. Some species, like both Robins and Canada Goose are more or less migratory based on locale and food-sources. Maybe easier for them to hunker down and get through some cold weather in a place with lots of food than to take the rigors of migration to some far-away place that might not have as much when they get there. Also, for Canada Goose, it might have something to do with the fact that most of those we see are the descendents of birds that were captured or pen-raised elsewhere, and released in our locality, as most of the former resident Canada Geese had been extirpated by the late '60s. I remember seeing the first Canada Goose that I'd ever seen at Prairie Creek Reservoir (Near Muncie) in about 1988. Now that lake is full of them.

 

[xcalibur]

I do enjoy Sandhill Crane photos.....Thanks fellas

My youngest and I were out at Goose Pond on the 22nd. Lots of Sandhills. Also observed 3 Whoopers in flight. Ponds are mostly iced over still. Not a lot of ducks but several Snow geese and greater white-fronted geese. Eagles are on the nest. If anyone visits be warned the side roads are in bad shape, but it looks like they are working on them.