Thanks to Bob Crowley for posting these birds’ return. I was enjoying magnificent scope views of a group of 24 birds when Bob himself drove up. Shortly after, I found another cluster of 7 cranes several hundred yards further South. At one point most of them flew and resorted themselves before settling into two different locations, still all to the East of the northern end of McNeil Rd, beyond its intersection with Old River Rd. These Sandies certainly can be appreciated with binocs, but a scope is recommended given their distance from the road.
Their recent location is a huge improvement over last year’s, a corn field ~ 1 mi West, where the birds were much further from the closest available observation point.