T. Jason Wright Photography's photostream  

My big guy turns 4 years old tomorrow!

This is a large flock of Greater Sandhill Cranes found in an area of Jackson County called the Ewing Bottoms.

From the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center:
The breeding range of the Greater Sandhill Crane spans mid-continental North America from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean. Scientists generally divide the Greater Sandhill Crane into four distinct regional populations.

Eastern population
The breeding grounds of the Eastern (or Great Lakes) population are in southcentral Canada, the western Great Lakes, and the Upper Midwest (southern Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Iowa, and southeastern Minnesota). During the 1994 fall census (Urbanek 1994), 26,187 birds were tallied. The population likely exceeds 30,000. The main portion of the population migrates through the east-central United States (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky) to wintering grounds in southern Georgia and central Florida (Walkinshaw 1973, Lewis 1977). The Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in northwest Indiana is a critical migration stopover point. Birds from the western parts of the breeding range may migrate down the Mississippi Valley to wintering areas on the Texas Gulf Coast.

There are 425-450 cranes in this panorama.

Daniel passed out on Thanksgiving