Feathered Friday - A Ton of Sandhill Cranes

Here are a few photos of sandhill cranes in Willcox Arizona for this #featherdfriday by @melinda010100

Willcox is known for their sandhill crane birdwatching. Here they all gather during the winter months to escape the cold Northern winters.

Thousands of them gather here every day and there are quite a few known areas to observe them.

Up north here in Illinois they can be heard high up in the sky but they tend to disperse to raise their young. So I rarely get to see them in large numbers unless they are migrating high up in the sky.

In Arizona you can see tons of them gathered together for their winter getaway. This allows for all sorts of photography opportunities.

The bright sun and arid atmosphere also let you get decent flight photos compared to the darker humid atmospheres in Illinois. Plus in Illinois there are trees to obscure them.

Here are a trio coming in for a landing. They saw and heard a large number of their feathered friends on the ground and wanted to join them for the party.

Here is the big party on the ground. There must have been over a thousand landed here in this shallow lake.

There are a number of these shallow lakes around the Willcox valley that are fed by sulfur springs or just flood water from the mountains. They make a perfect vacation spot to socialize in. Out here there are no predators that will bother them so they can relax.

I took many photos of the group on the ground. I wonder if they pair up here in this big social event then fly back up north to raise a family?

Here is a little video I took of them making quite a loud cacophony of noise. Now I wish I had brought my zooming video camera in my carry on luggage instead of just my cell phone.

That's all for now thanks for looking :-)