February 19, 2016
They predicted it — a day of high winds yesterday, bringing southern climes to the Midwest. Today the warm temperatures remain, with milder winds.
I should honor the guys and gals who read the computer models correctly, but in this blog I shall pass them by to call attention to another group of expert weather forecasters — sand hill cranes.
They reside in huge bodies. How in this world can they migrate northward in the springtime and southward in autumn? They fly with the winds. Yesterday was good for them, but we couldn’t see them because of the heavy clouds. Today the sky is clear.
I get cranebumps every time I hear them. The first group, flying low, moved too quickly for me to get the camera. The second group was beautiful but I got dizzy from looking straight up and went down. After getting my bearings, I caught two addition groups, none of which was close.
This group was reconnoitering — that is flying in circles to get a new, fresh leadership.
Why do four cranes fly alone? Might anyone know? I am thinking to send them the question, airmail.
jdanielhessblog 
Maybe they are the next leaders, going over the route together. When I lived in Middlebury, we always had a nesting pair in the field behind our house. I got to watch the courting dances and then the babies running around. I just fell in love with them.
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Lucky you. Some years several hundred land in a marsh close to Lali’s place.
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