Hi Tweets -- If you are getting psyched up for Sandhill Cranes now arriving
in the Central Columbia Basin, you might want to read this. This is as an
excerpted portion of an email message I just sent to my brother upon my
return to Bellevue after a week in my native Northwestern Missouri.

"....snip....
Thanks for checking in. Yep, made it back okay and right on schedule. I
came rolling in at 7am yesterday (Saturday) morning. Making that not really
mandatory Seattle deadline meant *28 hours straight non-stop* driving from
Lexington, Nebraska. There was so much to do in and around Maryville, I
stayed on there for an additional 24hrs and didn't get away from Thelma's
until 8am (Thursday) and even then I was already feeling really really tired
to be taking on this epic 1900 mile road trip to Seattle at the onset. 4-1/2
hours into the road trip, I came rolling into the I-80 rest stop just east of
Grand Island, Nebraska for a quick power nap. It was right then and there my
plan, schedule, and pace disintegrated.

What happened?!? ...SANDHILL CRANES!!!... I thought I might see one or two
or a few along this stretch of I-80 in south-central Nebraska and had
otherwise not given it much thought. At the rest stop, I quickly realized
that a major event was in progress with clouds of geese and cranes everywhere
which met aborting the nap and heading for the next exit and get off this
noisy interstate to take a 'quick' exploratory look around. 'Quick?' HA!!
I found myself exploring and sightseeing and zigzagging all the countless
back roads in the 'sandhill country' along the Platte River between Grand
Island and Kearny for the next seven hours until sunset. I could not drag
myself away from this unprecidented spectacle.

And you thought that cloud of 350,000 Snow Geese at Squaw Creek last Sunday
was impressive?!? Sure! ...but hey! ...how about at least that many (maybe a
*HALF-MILLION*) SANDHILL CRANES in addition to at least that many or double
more geese (up to 2-million so the experts say -- Canadas, Snows & Blues,
White-fronts). I utterly could not believe it, nor my such good luck and
timing as this has long been an event that I've always wanted to see and
experience in my lifetime. I decided that the delay this was going to cause
me was justified; I mean after all, I'm here at the exact right time even if
just by coincidence to experience something I've always wanted, why not just
take advantage of it. So, there I was for the next seven hours until sunset.
Thousands upon thousands upon tens of thousands of Sandhill Cranes were
everywhere for miles and miles along the Platte for as far as I could see; in
the air and on the ground, in seemingly every corn and wheat field, pasture,
and adorning the crests and slopes of the grassy sand hills along the braided
Platte River. All those plus all the geese. The din filling the air was
totally unreal. As I putzed along and going from flock to flock to flock,
each one seemingly more densely packed or scenically set in a more inspiring
panorama than the previous, I was finding myself constantly uttering
irreverent superlatives of disbelief -- typical and frequent such as
[...oops... sorry; that part edited out for 'Tweeters' sensitivities :-))
.....] and so on endlessly over and over and over.

Then the whole afternoon climaxed starting about 2 hours before sunset until
sunset during all of which time I just by chance happened to be at the exact
right spot at the right time as an additional 100,000 new arrivals along with
all the thousands upon tens of thousands of others from the surrounding miles
and miles of fields all came in enmass to roost in and near the river and
immediately adjacent fields. In addition to all that, there were all those
geese too. It was sort of an early sunset because the sky was so darkened
with so many birds and ALL the big and splashy variety. Move aside
blackbirds. Such a sight and such an indescribable cacophony of sound
utterly pierced the soul. Whoa baby!!

As darkness settled over the Platte, and despite feeling totally drained and
chilled even, I pushed on west but lasted only an hour or so when I ran into
a rain and snow mix which was making driving any further this night much too
much of an effort and risk for a totally ravaged, exhausted, and hunger
starved body, so put down for the night in Lexington and still a dreadfully
long way from my original first night target destination at Laramie, Wyoming.
But it was worth it and I did make it up even if the 28-hour run from
Lexington to Seattle nearly killed me off. Hopefully I'll be fully recovered
before taking on another long road trip (1100 miles) on Friday to
California... ugh, perish the thought for now. Incidentally, as I was
fueling up (gas and coffee) and preparing to leave Lexington, the morning
edition of the "Omaha World-Herald" caught my eye right there on the counter
with the front page color spread titled "Nebraska's Transient Icons Are
Back". All in all, I thought it pretty amazing to have just blundered into
all this just by accident or coincidence.

So, here I am on Sunday after sleeping away much of the weekend, and just had
to crank up 'Beelzebub' and search the web for information about the
returning icons of Nebraska. I mean really!!!... there has to be a *serious*
website focused on THIS phenomenal event. And boom, item two: <A
HREF="http://ngp.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/cranes.html">Sandhill Cranes
(Nebraska)</A>
Double click on this hyperlink when online and check it out!!
....or do it the hard way and go to:
http://ngp.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/cranes.html

.....snip...."

This site has it all. Absolutely everything you ever wanted to know about
Nebraska's Sandhill Cranes, when to go, where to go, maps, and everything
else. It's well done and well written. It's impossible to over emphasize,
romanticize, or exaggerate the scale of this event which is so world renowned
and rated among the top ten North American birding / nature experiences. I'm
sure there are at least a few 'tweets' who've been there and would
doubtlessly agree. During the first two or three weeks in March, you can't
go wrong or be disappointed -- guaranteed! So, it's not too late. Go now.
The scene there will peak this and next week. And who knows, maybe you'll
spot a 'big white one' amidst the vast seas of feathered gray. Not me this
time; I wasn't that lucky but certainly not for lack of looking.

But, since a spur of the moment Nebraska trip may not practical for most on
such short notice, a shorter trip should suffice. Granted, up to 25,000
Sandhill Cranes in the Central Columbia Basin around Othello is a long way
down the scale from a half-million Sandhill Cranes along the Platte in
south-central Nebraska, but none-the-less, a sight and experience that is
sure to thrill. And well... it would constitute a good 'practice run' for a
Nebraska trip in the future.

"WOS News 65" (Feb/Mar 2000) has an article on Washington's very own
'Sandhill Crane Festival 2000' on page 6. There was also a website addressed
which I couldn't access (a typo or something), but quickly found it by
searching and came up with this one: <A
HREF="http://www.othello-wa.com/sandhillcrane.htm">Sandhill Crane Events
(Othello, WA)</A>
Double click on this hyperlink when online,
....or again, do it the hard way and go to:
http://www.othello-wa.com/sandhillcrane.htm

Have a great Spring everyone! I'll be back in early June.

****************************************************
Richard Rowlett (Pterodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA, USA

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought" --Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986).
****************************************************