Sandhill Cranes - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

Picked up my first yard Sandhill Cranes yesterday (10/13) coming in relatively low over my Centennial (Arapahoe) yard, then riding a thermal south. The seventy-five or so of them followed a nice movement of White Pelicans through my neighborhood earlier in the day. The sixty or so pelicans delighted my wife and me on a walk, seeming like distant, floating, gleaming balloons riding a thermal.

Around dusk today, yesterday's cranes were topped by about 225 of them moving noisely over my yard. Tonight's were considerably higher than yesterday's. They moved in three V's, a small V tucked into the largest, and a medium one tailing the larger one. And then there was a loner drifting among the arranged birds. The cranes were followed by movements of ducks and geese. No ID on either of those flocks.

- Jared Del Rosso
Centennial, CO