Saturday, March 19, 2011

Dancing Cranes



Here are a couple of shots from this morning on the Platte River in Central Nebraska. We saw a LOT of cranes this morning, but the lighting was a bit of a challenge. We never did get any nice sunlight, but we saw a lot of incredible crane activity. When we first arrived at the blind the birds were very quiet. Most of them had their heads tucked under and were asleep. Before too long, though, they started waking up one by one and soon their chattering was quite loud. As they wake up they also start to hop and dance around quite a bit. Some of the dancing is to try and impress their mates or potential mates, and some of it is done to warm up before they take their first flight of the day. It was an unforgettable morning and we are hoping that the birds repeat their patterns and performances again tonight and tomorrow morning.


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