Sandhill Crane Migration - Monte Vista, CO
Every year nearly 20,000 Sandhill Cranes make a stop over on their migratory route in Monte Vista, CO. They start arriving in late February and are gone by the end of March. We missed it the last couple of years, but decided this year we would head down the weekend before the Monte Vista Crane Festival and try to see it for ourselves.
The pro tip here is you have to get there at sunrise. They are really active during the early morning and early evening. During the day they "loaf" in the fields and you basically can't see them. Jenni and I saw thousands as the sun came up. After a couple hours we made our way back to town to grab breakfast and then came back to the Refuge. It was probably 9:30am by that point and all of the lakes that were full of cranes had emptied.
These birds are 4 feet tall with wingspans between 5-7 feet. It is really something to see so many of them gliding through the air.
