Both the sandhill cranes and Roy and I are doing just that. Tonight, (Aug 31) is our last night in Fairbanks we head down the Parks Hwy and eventually to Whittier and the ferry. The cranes migrate every year and they congregate at Creamer’s Field in Fairbanks before flying south. It was neat watching Canadian Geese and Sandhill Cranes sit side by side each getting fat for the trip south.
The third weekend of August is the Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival. This was our first weekend in Fairbanks, so we headed over to see what was flying overhead. We also went over to the field a few times before the festival to take some pictures of the cranes.
Here are a few pictures of the cranes just hanging out and flying about.
I was in one of the photo blinds waiting for the birds to come to me. It took a bit of time, but they moved slowly towards me with cute little movements and even some one-legged posing.
The birds seemed to be happy just to hang out and fly every once in a while.
That is until the bald eagle comes around looking for dinner. This got the birds to fly up all at once. I really need to work on tracking these birds when they take off En masse. I also think they need to give me an alert saying we are taking off. They do make an alert with a vocalization I just am not sure what that is.
On the Road with Buki-6 
Flying Alaska to central FL, NM and AZ is a LOT of wing flapping. Think I’ll stick to pavement and floating modes. It’s been an awesome summer and I believe we’ve checked most every box on our to-do list – except – what’s on next year’s list ….. ??
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