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Walking with the Sandhill Cranes

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A bit of a distance from my mountains is the delta of the Fraser River. Across this rickety little bridge is a small island full of organic farms and the George C Riefel Migratory Bird Sanctuary.

On this drippy winter day I drove out there to see something spectacular, special and rare.

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Walking thru the sea of mallards, the occasional American wigeon, wood duck, teal and moor hen, along the paths being serenaded by red winged blackbirds, chickadees and towhees I came to the objects of my affection.

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The glorious and elusive winter visitors, the sandhill cranes.

I knelt on the ground and stayed with them a while.

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Then I walked thru the sanctuary and found all 11 birds. I made a small video to share with you all.

If you’re anywhere around the Lower Mainland, I encourage you to make your way here to walk with these magnificent birds before they fly away.

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Comments: 27

  • January 13, 2015
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    You got some really great captures of these beautiful birds! Amazing to see so close up. The video is excellent! Thanks for sharing this.

  • January 13, 2015
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    Wonderful job! The video adds a lot, movement and of course, the sounds! I love it. Thanks for sharing!

  • January 13, 2015
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    Beautiful pictures and video!

  • January 13, 2015
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    I love cranes – they are so wonderful! in october we stay near the baltic sea and we saw sooo many cranes – it was great! If you like have a look at my blogpost: http://manoswelt.blogspot.de/2014/10/unterwegs-in-mecklenburg-vorpommern-2.html
    🙂 mano

    • January 13, 2015
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      and thanks for the wonderful video!!

  • January 13, 2015
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    Wonderful we usually get to see these guys in Florida in the spring when we visit my inlaws- so nice to get that close to them 🙂 very lucky!

  • January 13, 2015
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    I just love the cranes on parade ! Great video Veronica. Ain’t technology grand !

      • January 15, 2015
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        I made one too but the last time I had a really hard time getting it to upload to YouTube so I have not tried for a while. I loved it Veronica! Always look forward to your blogs.

  • January 13, 2015
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    WordPress was not following you? That is the third blog this week. Nice to see you again even when I am slow to respond!

  • January 14, 2015
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    Oh, I would so love to see the sandhill cranes! Thank you for sharing this!

  • January 15, 2015
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    what a joy!! photos and video.
    how very graceful and magical, your choice of music is just superb.
    thanks

  • daryledelstein

    January 15, 2015
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    what a beautiful experience thank you for the video and for sharing it .. behind my parents place in Florida was a canal and across the canal was a wildlife sanctuary .. the cranes, i don’t know what variety they were, would swoop down low over the water and i will watch mesmerized … and the babies would often be seen wandering/hopping around the park area nearby … thanks for rekindling the memories!

  • Jo

    January 15, 2015
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    Magnificent photos – loved the video. I can’t imagine how fabulous that must have been. We saw some Sandhil Cranes in Wisconsin a couple years ago – but not this close. I have never seen them walking in the water before either.

  • January 17, 2015
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    We have them here….on our farm even. They are extremely shy and very hard to get good photos of. You did a great job and were able to sit awhile with them. How cool is that!

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/?s=The+Adventures+of+Fuzzy+and+Boomer&submit=Search
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

  • January 25, 2015
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    Hello Veronica

    These are amazing photographs – unusual that they let you get so close to them!
    I loved your video and I will come back to see it again – thank you!
    I miss you too – I’m glad we have caught up again!
    Stay in touch
    Shane

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