Sunrise hues and Sandhill Cranes, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

The Sandhill Cranes are making their winter migration  from the North to the Pacific Fly-way in California’s Central Valley.  Lodi,CA was having its annual Sandhill Crane festival over the week-end of Nov. 3-4, 2012. Several friends and I went. We had a great time and spotted some great birds in addition to the Cranes. I took this photo the morning of the 4th just after the sun rose. We got up early, and drove out to the country to see the “Fly-out”. The Cranes spent the night in the fields where we were, but they spend the day in other fields where they’ll graze on corn.

My ears were filled with the sounds of honking Cranes, and geese, quacking ducks, and periodically the sounds of hundreds of wings as flocks of birds lifted off. It was an amazing morning to be alive.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@80mm|f5.6| 1/3200| ISO 200| Manual Priority| Hand-held

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