sandhill cranes

My family and I frequent a tiny town in Northern California called Mineral. Every morning there's a beautiful two mile walk we take which leads us through a couple very large meadows. The walks are usually filled with socializing, but we always make sure to keep an eye out for the Sandhill Cranes. It's pretty rare that we see them, so when we actually do it's a fairly special moment. They are very large birds, usually weighing between 7-14 lbs with a wingspan of 5-7 feet. This is the first time, since I started doing photography 3 or 4 years ago, that I've seen them close enough to take a photo. An exciting opportunity for me, and hopefully the first of many more! 

​"The Sandhill Crane is an incredibly old species, a fossil found was 2.5 million years old, which is over one and a half times older than the earliest remains of most living species of birds."
-Audubon.org