Two Cranes in Flight. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Two sandhill cranes fly in close formation.
Since I now have a group of sandhill crane photographs in process it looks like I’ll be continuing to share this subject over the next week or so, mixed in with some other subjects that I’m working on at the same time. These wildlife photographs come from my winter visits to the Pacific Flyway to see geese, cranes, herons, egrets and lots of other seasonal visitors to California.
I’m certainly repeating myself when I write that sandhill cranes have perhaps become my favorite birds among those I photograph. For some reason, perhaps some passages in Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac” that I read decades ago, these birds have fascinated me since I first saw them. Unlike the geese that first attracted me to winter bird photography, cranes tend to be found (at least in these parts) in smaller groups. Where migratory geese are often found in groups of thousands, cranes are more typically in groups which, at their largest, may be in the hundreds, and which may often be as small as a couple of birds, as in this photograph.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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