Subject: [Tweeters] Othello Sandhill Crane Festival photos
Date: Mar 27 21:49:04 2006
From: Denny Granstrand - dgranstrand at charter.net


Hi Tweeters,

I took my mom, who is 84, and two of her friends to the Othello Sandhill
Crane Festival Saturday. Our first stop was on Bell Road near Moxee where
we saw five Long-billed Curlews.

We got to Road C SE south of Hwy 26 at about 12:30, just in time for lunch
and views of many Sandhill Cranes in the corn field to the west of the
road. We had wonderful views of many, many cranes in and flying into the
corn field. Hearing the calls of the many cranes was as exciting as seeing
the birds. There were also thousands of Canada Geese in the corn
field. We had lunch in the protection of the van, trying to keep out of
the cold wind.

After touring the exhibits at the festival headquarters, we headed east
from Othello to see Burrowing Owls in a small colony about three miles from
downtown. We got great looks at these cute owls. The burrows are so close
to the road I didn't even have to get out of the car to get nice photos.

We ended up on Road B SE south of Hwy 26 at about 5:30 to watch the cranes
as they flew from the corn field toward Lower Crab Creek. The number of
cranes that flew over us was amazing. The flocks numbered 25 to several
hundred and went over at easily 300 per minute. We stayed for 30 minutes
before heading home.

All three ladies seemed thrilled with their first birding road trip and all
of the new birds they saw.

Photos of the Sandhill Cranes, Burrowing Owls and two blackbirds are in the
new photos folder on my website.

Denny Granstrand

* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
* Denny's bird photos can be seen online at: *
http://granstrand.net/gallery/