{"id":65625,"date":"2020-02-26T05:14:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T12:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=65625"},"modified":"2025-02-25T12:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T18:23:13","slug":"my-first-of-year-sandhill-crane-sightings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/02\/26\/my-first-of-year-sandhill-crane-sightings\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Of Year Sandhill Crane Sightings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SandhillSandhill Crane and wildflowers \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I photographed Northern Harriers, Song Sparrows, Black-crowned Night Herons, Great Blue Herons, Red-winged Blackbirds,\u00a0 Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, Cinnamon Teals, Green-winged Teals, and flocks of Canada Geese yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n

The sky was clear, the sun was shining and although the temps were low early on the day held the promise of being warmer, almost spring-like.<\/p>\n

And then I heard the calls of a pair of Sandhill Cranes<\/span><\/a>, the sound I have waited all winter long to hear again. I couldn’t see the cranes right then but I knew that they weren’t too far away.<\/p>\n

The first Sandhill Cranes I spotted this year I saw three days ago near the Visitor Center of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. That pair of cranes were in flight but they weren’t calling.<\/p>\n

When I stopped to photograph some immature Black-crowned Night Herons yesterday morning I heard the calls of the Sandhill Cranes again and off in the distance I spotted the two cranes in flight. I took a few crappy documentary images of them but the pair didn’t fly in close enough for decent photos.<\/p>\n

Since I couldn’t get any high quality images of the pair of Sandhills Cranes I saw yesterday I decided I wanted to share this photo of a Sandhill Crane I took in June of 2015 in the Centennial Valley of southwestern Montana because the wet meadow and wildflowers are so green. Springy.<\/p>\n

I was delighted to hear the Sandhill Cranes calling yesterday. Their bugling calls touch me and remind me that I am every bit a part of nature as the cranes are.<\/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 was delighted to hear the Sandhill Cranes calling yesterday. Their bugling calls touch me and remind me that I am every bit a part of nature as the cranes are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1513,27,223,12,450],"tags":[4004,4259,3891,2304,3823,3132,7176,4518,5404,165,5434,5271,4307],"class_list":["post-65625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-sandhill-cranes","tag-adult","tag-antigone-canadensis","tag-blue-flag-iris","tag-calls","tag-crane","tag-cranes","tag-meadow","tag-sandhill-crane","tag-sighting","tag-spring","tag-valley","tag-wet-meadow","tag-wildflowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t