The Sandhill Cranes are Coming! On the Road in Northern California

The Sandhill Cranes are coming! These beautiful birds spend their summers in the Arctic, their winters in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, and they fly a long ways between the two. So far as I know, they haven't arrived at the Great Valley wildlife refuges yet, but I can assure you they are on their way!

We are at the Oregon-California border at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge this weekend. It is a critical stop for more than a million migratory birds on their way to the Great Valley and points south, as it provides a reasonably safe resting and feeding locality before the winter snows set in. We saw tens of thousands of geese and ducks at Tulelake, and as we drove across Highway 161 on the state border, we saw perhaps four dozen Sandhill Cranes in the fields along the road. Mt. Shasta provided a dramatic backdrop.

More pictures from our adventures to come!