{"id":14572,"date":"2014-03-17T06:42:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T12:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=14572"},"modified":"2025-02-25T07:28:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:28:36","slug":"sandhill-crane-delight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/17\/sandhill-crane-delight\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandhill Crane Delight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SandhillSandhill Crane in flight with Thousand Lake Mountain in the background – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited or called in<\/span><\/p>\n

I am back from wandering, camping and photographing in several counties in southern Utah\u00a0where\u00a0I was delighted to find some Sandhill Cranes to photograph in Wayne County, Utah. The cranes were feeding, calling\u00a0and displaying in a farmer’s field in the mornings and evenings. The male Sandhill Crane in the image above was coming in to land in the field and in the background is Thousand Lake Mountain with low clouds that were dumping some snow on that area. There was a bitter cold wind blowing that morning\u00a0and while the cranes didn’t seem to mind my frozen fingers certainly felt it.<\/p>\n

\"SandhillSandhill Crane flying over Bicknell Bottoms – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited or called in<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point I counted 33 Sandhill Cranes in the field and I took tons of images of them while they fed, danced, displayed and called. The calls<\/a><\/span> of Sandhill Cranes have been heard for at least 2.5 million years. At 2.5 million years the fossil record is over one and a half times older than the earliest remains of most species of living birds.<\/p>\n

More photos of the cranes to come along with a few more birds and scenic images from a part of my adopted state that show the natural beauty found in the areas I visited on this trip. To borrow an old saying “I am one happy camper” especially after photographing this Sandhill Crane delight.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Sandhill Crane photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am back from wandering, camping and photographing in several counties in southern Utah where I was delighted to find some Sandhill Cranes to photograph in Wayne County, Utah. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,450,26,2486],"tags":[4004,4259,4101,4828,3823,3132,4052,4122,4069,4518,4018,2487],"class_list":["post-14572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-sandhill-cranes","category-utah","category-wayne-county","tag-adult","tag-antigone-canadensis","tag-clouds","tag-cloudy","tag-crane","tag-cranes","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-mountains","tag-sandhill-crane","tag-sky","tag-thousand-lake-mountain"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-flying-mia-mcpherson-6305.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-3N2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":111112,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/03\/13\/communing-with-sandhill-cranes\/","url_meta":{"origin":14572,"position":0},"title":"Communing With Sandhill Cranes","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been thinking a lot about Sandhill Cranes recently so I am going back in time to nine years ago today when I photographed them in Wayne County, Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Bicknell Bottoms Wildlife Management Area"","block_context":{"text":"Bicknell Bottoms Wildlife Management Area","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bicknell-bottoms-wildlife-management-area\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sandhill Cranes dancing in a farmer's field, Bicknell Bottoms, Wayne County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/sandhill-cranes-spring-wayne-county-mia-mcpherson-5057.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/sandhill-cranes-spring-wayne-county-mia-mcpherson-5057.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/sandhill-cranes-spring-wayne-county-mia-mcpherson-5057.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/sandhill-cranes-spring-wayne-county-mia-mcpherson-5057.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115246,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/08\/18\/kamas-valley-sandhill-crane-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":14572,"position":1},"title":"Kamas Valley Sandhill Crane Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 18, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, on the way to the Uinta Mountains, April Olson and I looked for birds in the Kamas Valley. That's where I took these Sandhill Crane photos.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Sandhill Crane in grassy field in Kamas Valley, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sandhill-crane-kamas-mia-mcpherson-8104.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sandhill-crane-kamas-mia-mcpherson-8104.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sandhill-crane-kamas-mia-mcpherson-8104.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sandhill-crane-kamas-mia-mcpherson-8104.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14656,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/31\/a-sandhill-crane-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":14572,"position":2},"title":"Sandhill Crane In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I am keeping it simple this morning with a lone Sandhill Crane in flight over Wayne County that I photographed about two weeks ago while in southern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lone Sandhill Crane in flight, Bicknell Bottoms Wildlife Management Area, Wayne County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sandhill-crane-flight-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6317.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sandhill-crane-flight-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6317.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sandhill-crane-flight-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6317.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sandhill-crane-flight-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6317.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":121870,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/25\/my-first-of-year-sandhill-crane\/","url_meta":{"origin":14572,"position":3},"title":"My First Of Year Sandhill Crane","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago, I heard and saw my first Sandhill Crane of the year. The calling crane was in flight, way off in the distance.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Long distance Sandhill Crane in flight, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sandhill-crane-long-distance-mia-mcpherson-8643.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sandhill-crane-long-distance-mia-mcpherson-8643.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sandhill-crane-long-distance-mia-mcpherson-8643.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Visits Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago, I was lucky enough to photograph an uncommon visitor to Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge\u2014an immature Sandhill Crane I spotted in a field.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Sandhill Crane at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-immature-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-4808.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-immature-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-4808.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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