Next time Michelle, invite them to lunch. They would be great conversationalist what with their constant traveling north to south and back again. Better yet throw them a welcome home party. I share your joy in seeing these magnificent birds. Neil and I used to run out of the house with binoculars in hand and watch them til they got out of sight as they flew over the lake flock after flock. One of the sad things I heard the other day was somewhere in TN where flocks of them used to stop to eat corn in the fields near the river that the folks who always bought extra loads of corn to scatter in the fields for them couldn't do it this year due to the economy.

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.

i remember the times that we used to travel to eastern Colorado to visit relatives, we were lucky that a couple times it matched up with the migrations of the sandhill cranes thru eastern Colorado, the local tv and radio stations here used to announce the progress of the migration from south texas north across New Mexico into the San Luis valley where they stopped several days on their trip north. It was newsworthy in that a couple of whooping cranes were spotted with the Sandhill cranes and hundreds of people would drive over there ahead of time to camp for a couple days to see the thousands of cranes and hope to spot a Whooping crane. I have not heard anything in recent years on the news but i know they still come thru.

Oh wow whass........what a great shot! They never seem to land around here (central Indiana), but they fly over every spring and fall. They stop over in northern Indiana by the thousands in October. How cool for you that they stopped by your house!