Almost anywhere between North Platte and Grand Island, along the Platte River, and the fields to the north and south of the river are places you can see the cranes. Another place with tours and guided tours is the Crane Trust and Visitors Center at Alda, Nebraska, exit 305 on I-80. It's about a 30 minute drive east of Kearney. Blind tours usually fill up fast but Crane Trust and Rowe Sanctuary might have a few left. They have early morning or evening times when the cranes are at the river in the morning, or when they return in the evening. Crane Trust does a weekly flyover and estimates the counts of cranes and other birds along the river.

Here's this weeks count: On February 13th 2023, we counted an estimated 6,400±900 Sandhill Cranes in the Central Platte River Valley between Chapman and Overton, Nebraska. All the Sandhill Cranes were in roosts by Mormon and Shoemaker Island. This is a fairly average first week (typically between 4,000 to 8,000) but is significantly less than last year at this time (27,425±645 Sandhill Cranes). This weeks estimates are definitely a current minimum as after returning from the flight we saw more flocks coming to the river, possibly a small push before the weather came through last night into today. We also counted 56,207 dark geese (Canada Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, and Cackling Geese), 33 Trumpeter Swans, and 4 Bald Eagles. Geese were fairly well spread throughout the river valley but about 2/5th of the counted geese were between Elm Creek and Overton.

https://cranetrust.org/

Excellent shots!

Thank you to everyone that made comments about my pictures today. Much appreciated and I'm you liked them.

Yes, this one usually goes straight up to some dead branches in the tree. Also, dead branches on a tree to the north. I have pictures of it in those locations but a lot of them end up more like silhouettes because they are in a shaded area. It all depends on how the light is where it is, and a lot of times the wind blowing branches with leaves close by causes the focus to switch to the leaves, and not the hummer. It can be challenging, but possible. Thank you for the comment.

Every year I been putting a hummingbird feeder at a local park so I can go there and sit on a bench and take pictures of the hummingbird that usually stays all summer. Yesterday, when I changed the water, the outdoor temperature was 100 degrees and a slight breeze every once in awhile. After I sat down, it was just 5 minutes when he appeared at the feeder, but then I had to wait 30 minutes for it to come back. Usually it's only 10-15 minutes. These are the last 4 shots I took on the hummers 2nd trip to the feeder. Hand held, 1/1600 sec, F-4, auto ISO (iso 1250), and 220mm using my Sony RX10-IV. All are straight out of the camera pics with no editing of any kind. Not sure how they might look on your screen, but pretty sharp and clear on my monitor. Any comments are welcome, good or bad.

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Thank you Joe. One of my lucky captures a couple years ago.

I have a Samsung A20 and don't have trouble texting with it. I figure when I get the broken words I didn't type, it's because I grazed over letters and it detected it and tried to create words. I just mainly do one letter at a time which works better than, or use the auto created words just above the keyboard if the right word is there. The bigger problem I have with my phone is that when on a call, the person I am talking to thinks I hung up. I can hear them, but they can't hear me. Then, I have to hang up and call them, or wait for them to recall me. I think other people have heard of that and have that same problem. Has anyone else had that issue, along with the keyboard? Thanks for any replies.

Thank you . At times we had 5 or more blue herons in a diversion channel of the river. There's a hiking/biking trail that runs along the channel for over a mile. I walked that and was on the way back when I saw this one. I got lucky just as it started to fly and was on continuous shooting so got quite a few shots, with this being the best 2. Sometimes I would stand there, with camera ready, just for when they might take off.

Thank you.

Thank you. These were shot in jpeg, so probably not many options now.

Not really opposed to post processing, but I normally just shoot jpegs. And, I have no idea how to use Lightroom or other programs. Have tried Capture One on a few RAW photos with not much results since I don't really know what I am doing with it. Maybe some day, but don't see it any time soon probably.

A little dark, but how the photos looked coming straight out of the camera with no editing.

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Here's one I been watching since before the eaglets hatched...…..https://www.dickpritchettrealestate.com/eagle-feed.html

The crane migration through Nebraska starts roughly about Valentine's Day and runs into early April. By the end of February counts might only be around 10,000 or so, but by the middle of March there will be between 500,000-600,000 between roughly Grand Island and North Platte. Crane Trust, exit 305 on Interstate 80 and Rowe Sanctuary are the best two places for information about blind reservations and where to go to view the cranes. During the daytime, cranes are feeding in the fields all along the Platte River. In the spring, the cranes are headed north into northern Canada and some go as far as Siberia. They stop in Nebraska along the Platte River to rest and add a few pounds to their body weight, which gives them the energy needed for the long flight to the north. They can stay for 2 - 3 weeks on the way north. In the fall, there is not a mass migration as they travel south since by the time they reach Nebraska, they might just stay overnight and rest up, and then make the final leg of their journey south to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Yes, Linda is correct. I had that same thing happen with my Sony DSC-HX80 one day while taking pictures through a bus window while on an Honor Flight tour. So far, it hasn't happened on my Sony RX10iii or A6000.