Crane Mania

Out the door before the sun rise again and headed to looks at cranes. How hard could this be right? I mean it's a little larger, paler and has dark facial markings and a yellow bill. It should stick out like a sore thumb. We headed to the lake first just as the sun was rising. Nine scaled quail ran across the road in front of us as we approached the lake with their little white peaked tufts standing straight up. By this time the sky was full of cranes. Thousands of them. The sun was like a laser beam out if the east making every bird appear dark and silhouetted. Great. Well let's just follow them. But which ones? They were cruisin out in every direction. Shit. 

Well let's just follow the largest group. We did.  For miles. Down dusty red dirt roads. Like a hot air balloon chase vehicle except the birds constantly change course. Finally they started to settle down into an agricultural field and as we arrived the reality of this chase began to set in.  

There were other birds around. Flocks of brewers blackbirds and eurasian-collared doves were feeding in a field as a pair of beautiful light ferruginous Hawks perched on poles and circled the fields. A flock of lark buntings perched in a bush for some quick photos before moving on, new year birds as well. 

But sorting through Thousands and thousands of cranes feeding a quarter mile out in a field with blazing sun and morning heat shimmer was not going to be easy and it was still supposed to get warmer. We spent a few hours scoping and jockeying for different positioning to get a look at the entire flock. The warmer it got, the harder it got. The cranes began to concentrate in a shallow wet area in the field at the end of a dirt road. We set up scoped for a few more hours. No luck. 

At this point we needed food and a break so we drove into New Mexico for gas and beverages. On the way we had a gorgeous prairie falcon on a power pole that took flight and soared around us for a few minutes. Check. 

We headed back and met a couple of birders from Mississippi on their way to California also looking for the common crane. They had arrived at the same

location that we had left and spent the last few hours looking through the flock 

We exchanged numbers and continued to search the area ending the day at the lake again watching the cranes come in to roost. As the sun set we were disappointed but had added three new year birds so all wasn't lost. We decided call it a day and crash. My eyes were strained and all I wanted was to sleep.