Thousands of sandhill cranes take off in the early morning on the Platte River in Kearney, Nebraska. About 650,000 sandhills spend about six weeks (late February to early April) here before making their 10,000-mile migratory trek to Canada, Alaska and Siberia. I spent three hours in a blind this morning (March 14, 2011) to get these pictures. It is one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen.
It snowed last night in Kearney and it was about 27 degrees in the blind but worth my fingers and toes falling off. The only thing to compare with it in all my travels is the Galapagos Islands.
The sandhills spend the day in the cornfields fueling up for their migration north. When they finally head north they will ride the thermals and go about 350 miles a day. I think that’s how the old joke started — “I just flew in from Kearney and boy are my arms tired!”
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