Tag Archives: sandhill

Dancing Cranes

Dancing Cranes
Dancing Cranes

Dancing Cranes. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 16, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of sandhill cranes perform a courtship “dance.”

The sandhill cranes hold a special place for me in the list of San Joaquin Valley birds. Many years ago, I recall reading the work of the great American conservationist Aldo Leopold in a college class. As a young “Sierra Guy” I registered that this was supposed to be important, but my passions were with Muir and the Sierra and I was skeptical that some guy writing about some birds I had never seen could have much of interest to say about such things. To be honest, most of it didn’t sink in at the time — but as so often happens with college experiences, the seed was planted and it finally took root and grew much later. A second story: I was not at all interested in photographing birds until a chance encounter with a colleague while waiting in the espresso stand line one morning at the college. While we were standing there chatting, my friend Pauline mentioned her passion for birding and described a place further north in the Central Valley. I was going to photograph that weekend but didn’t have specific plans, so I more or less figured, “what the heck, might as well go check out this bird place.” The embarrassing fact is that I had lived decades in California with (almost) no idea of the astonishing numbers of migratory birds that make their homes here. One visit to this place my friend mentioned and I was hooked.

While the geese are my primary excuse to go photograph birds, over time I’ve become more and more fascinated by the cranes. There is nothing like arriving before dawn where they hang out and hearing their haunting cry carrying over the wetlands, unless it is the sight of a nearly perfect line of them, wings moving slowly, as they follow their level trajectories above the landscape, especially when it is a bit foggy. During the day they often seem to collect in groups, quietly feeding on pasture land. In the evening (and occasionally during the day) vast numbers of them coast in to land. And then there is “the dance.” Among a seemingly quiet group of cranes, mayhem erupts as small groups collect together and take turns jumping into the air in what I understand to be a courtship ritual.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Four Sandhill Cranes

Four Sandhill Cranes
Four Sandhill Cranes

Four Sandhill Cranes. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 22, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Four sandhill cranes take flight above a dormant San Joaquin Valley field

At some point every fall my attention turns to (along with a few other seasonal things) the arrival of migratory birds in California’s Great Central Valley. In earlier times this was a landscape full of seasonal pools and marshlands, and it reportedly supported uncountable numbers of birds. Much of the wetland terrain has now been taken for farming and other purposes, but some has been preserved and the birds still come. By the time late fall and early winter roll around again, an impressive number of birds arrive: geese, sandhill cranes, swans, and more. I lived in California since I was a small child and I never knew about this, even though much of the action takes place within a day’s drive of where I grew up. Even today, it seems that few Californians are aware of the rich annual spectacle that takes place so close to them.

I made my first bird photography foray of the season a few weeks before this visit, but by this late December visit a lot more birds had shown up — including the geese who seemed strangely absent earlier. (The three years of very serious drought in California are doubtlessly part of the explanation.) There were a lot of sandhill cranes. I’m not sure if the numbers have increased, of it they just happened to be in places where I could find them more easily, but I sure saw a lot of them. When photographing these birds we always take steps to make ourselves less visible and threatening to the birds — we often photograph from inside our vehicles, and when we can and do get out to photograph we try to avoid disturbing the birds. However, this group was a surprise, showing up very close to us as we crept past slowing in a vehicle and taking to the air almost immediately. Fortunately I had my camera handy and I was able to stop immediately and track their flight as they took off and circled us.

(This photograph appeared here previously in a an article about a new lens that I used to make the photograph.)


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Departing Cranes

Departing Cranes
Departing Cranes

Departing Cranes. San Joaquin Valley, California. February 14, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A row of sandhill cranes takes to the air and flies toward Ross’s Geese above the San Joaquin Valley

This group of sandhill cranes was part of a much larger group that I had been photographing for some time on this winter day. A very large flock of them had settled in on a shallow pond and nearby field, much closer than usual to the spot from which I was watching them. They stood around as a group, with some smaller sub-groups occasionally breaking off to wander around a bit, and I watched them and made photographs as they assembled themselves in various configurations against backgrounds of water, pasture, trees, and sky.

Then they began to leave. Without any warning that I could perceive, small groups of a half-dozen or so would suddenly lift into the air and head off purposefully while those left behind seemed unaffected by their departure. A few minutes later another group would repeat the process. Eventually there were only a few left and I moved to where I could photograph them. A few more take-offs and this was the only group remaining, and when it left I quickly made a photograph of this line of cranes heading away toward evening sky, trees, and a large flock of Ross’s geese.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Sandhill Cranes, Wetlands Marsh

Sandhill Cranes, Wetlands Marsh
Sandhill Cranes, Wetlands Marsh

Sandhill Cranes, Wetlands Marsh. San Joaquin Valley, California. February 14 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of sandhill cranes stands in a San Joaquin Valley wetlands marsh

This group of sandhill cranes was part of a bigger group that came much closer to us than I am used to. Most of the time when I see cranes they are either a good distance away if they are on the ground or they are in flight and passing quickly overhead. One of my strongest memories of cranes is from a morning of very dense fog, when I could hear their creaking, croaking cries from off somewhere in the distance, but could only catch a brief, half-visible view of them as they passed directly overhead and then disappeared again into the tule fog. But this group was hanging around in a shallow pond, near the dirt access road and even near to lots of other birds.

The cranes almost seem a bit aloof to me. While the geese whirl and turn overhead, and then erupt periodically into a honking riot when something disturbs them, the cranes seem to mostly stand quietly, occasionally walking a bit in the water or, even less often, on the land. The arrangement of this group caught my attention, with all standing together but each adopting its own unique pose.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.