4/8

I almost forgot to show the Sandhill Cranes some love this year! Each spring, millions migrate from the Gulf Coast to their breeding grounds in Canada. There’s also a smaller migration from the Gulf of California to Alaska.

We’ve been to Nebraska for the cranes. March can be brutally cold there and you have to get up brutally early to see the birds, but it’s worth all the discomfort and inconvenience. I don’t have any pictures of our visit to the Rowe Sanctuary, but the Audubon Society runs a great webcam. You can scroll back 12 hours in time to see the birds roost at night and watch their morning routines.

And since we’re visiting Nebraska today, I’ll toss in a link to a performance of ”There Is No Place Like Nebraska,” one of the great college songs of America.

I do have some photos of the Pacific Flyway migration. The cranes gather along the Columbia River bottomlands around Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington, to rest up and refuel on their long flight to Alaska.