We finally made it to Whitewater Draw—a marshy area located near Elfrida, AZ managed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. In Montana during spring and summer we will have one or two pairs of nesting Sandhill Cranes in our fields. We enjoy seeing these huge birds and hearing their haunting calls.
Whitewater Draw is the winter home for 20,000—30,0000 Sandhill Cranes and we had been told it was quite the sight and sound—well it was an amazing experience! In late afternoon just before dusk the birds started arriving chattering with each other and finding just the right spot to rest for the night. We sat out there in the damp chill until almost dark watching large bands fly in. They were also joined by other smaller birds—yellow headed black birds by the hundreds.
During the night I was up and heard a strange noise—opened the kitchen window and could hear the voices of thousands of cranes—amazing. Michael said during the night he thought the coyotes were after the birds—he would hear the coyotes howling then a mighty squawking—the brochure states the birds stand in the shallow waters to avoid predators but they might have met up with a coyote who didn’t mind getting his feet wet in order to have supper!
We walked out to the viewing area just before dawn on Saturday morning and it was even more amazing—thousands and thousands of those huge birds—all talking to each other.
New Year’s Eve was very exciting around here—I went to bed at 4:30pm—not am and slept until 2017! It’s been more of the same all day today—up for a while, back to bed. Lousy bug!!
Happy New Year to all our readers, friends and family!!
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When ranch sitting at Jeannie & Rays down the road years ago it was really something to see them flying over the ranch in the morning heading up the valley then over the ranch again in the late afternoon on their way back to the Whitewater draw. And they were always chattering to each other too.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a sight, thanks so much for sharing. I imagine it would be pretty hard for coyotes to pass up all that potential dinner. Emmi is so precious :-)))) Hope you're well soon.
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