Can you even imagine 25,000 to 35,000 of these magnificent birds taking off from the river at sunrise. Awe inspiring, Leone was actually crying with emotion, their cry is so eerie and with that many at once it is unlike anything you can imagine. As they circled from the river they blotted out the sun which was just peeping over the horizon. We actually have a smaller group of birds here than they do about 50 miles east of here so it is hard to imagine what the spectacle must be. There was a nice story in the Omaha paper yeasterday about the volunteers that come here every year to help out with the hordes of visitors that visit the blinds and sanctuarys, one was from British Columbia, he has been coming here for the last 14 years and says he really isn't a bird watcher but the sight of close to a half million of these large prehistoric birds has captivated him. He talked about a woman from New York state that came out to a blind one sunrise and did nothing but complain, too cold, too dark and too early but when the birds left the river she began crying, touched his arm and apologized.. Even someone that isn't greatly into nature would have a hard time not being impressed when the birds blacken the sky and begin calling.

No Barbra! It's supposed to be a hidden garden, unlike mine. BUT after I get the vines growing on my front fence and the side fences are privacy fences since my neighbors don't like my dogs, I will have a hidden garden. I don't like them (the neighbors) either, but then that is another story. And I've planted 3 vetivers right behind my front fence, and I have another one to plant, so within a year or two I will have a hidden garden. In the meantime, I'm just one of the Hummer Homes. And Barbra, you might want to consider some vetiver to put on your fence side so you don't have to see your neighbor. But I do thank him for my baby Mocha. Call next time you are in town. I'll be traveling some, and then in February I'm flying to Hawaii to spend a week with Stacy. Shawn gets back from Iraq around March 5 to 10, so I'll go out and visit with her and the baby. Shawn will be gone for 15 months by the first of March. See you soon, and hope to meet Pam. ALSO, our MG Plant Sale is March 14 so mark your calendar. Later. Great Gardening, Linda

Cool! I live in central Indiana and we heard quite a few of them last week. A place in northern Indiana (Jasper-Pulaski game preserve) is an area where they stop over in the Fall migration (maybe spring too?). We went one year and around dusk, they started flying in from all directions. According to the DNR, their numbers reach 30,000-40,000 that stop there. I guess they spend the night in a marsh area nearby and then continue their journey. We're under their flyway, and I look forward to seeing/hearing them every Fall and early Spring. The Indiana DNR keeps tracks of their numbers, so that people who want to see them stop-over in northern Indiana know when to go to see the most. About 30 years ago, when we first moved out here into the country, they landed in a field next to us. So neat!! 2 years ago, I heard them in January. I could never figure out why I heard them at that time.....although I think that was just before our drought.....so maybe they knew something we didn't. Here's a pic I got of them a couple years ago. Wish I could have gotten a closer pic. I like to look for the occasional whooping crane that sometimes travels with them, but haven't seen any yet.

Beautiful pictures! Yes, they are sandhill cranes. Whooping cranes, along with being very rare, are almost entirely white, with mainly black wing tips visible in flight. Their migration patterns seem to be more responsive to local weather conditions than is the case with other birds. Here in NM, there is a huge wintering site for these cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR, but their numbers there fluctuate regularly in response to storms or warm periods. For them, an easy daylong flight of a couple hundred miles can mean the difference between nasty winter conditions, and nice mild overwintering grounds. This is exactly the case for the cranes at Monte Vista, CO and the Middle Rio Grande Valley in NM. The former is used by the birds in the fall, while the latter is good all winter!