by Denny Olson
The evening version of Sandhill Crane watching happened October 1, after a downpour rain delay of one day. The cranes staged at distance or just out of sight, while a few hundred Canada Geese came into the pond. A fairly good variety of waterfowl were there from the start.
Just at sunset, three Great Horned Owls – two young ones “sreeping” for food (my tortured phonetics), begging to the one adult sitting on the barn to the east. When the cranes came in, it was nearly dark. I’m sure air traffic control struggled to handle the numbers arriving from every direction on their 747 flight paths. It is spectacular to see a few hundred of them playing a cacophonous coda to the spectacular day in the crane fields. Everyone should see this!