Them wacky birds

My wife and I took the weekend to visit Grand Island, Nebraska to view the annual migration of the Sand Hill Cranes. We go every year, and arguably, March is the better time to see them, but after doing some research, we heard that the best time to see a "Whooping Crane" is in early April.

We weren't disappointed. We stopped at the Audubon Society at Rowe Sanctuary in Gibbon and heard that there had been a sighting of Whopping Cranes near Funk, NE. We programmed the GPS and found the WPA in Funk and, sure enough, there were three Whooping Cranes there. We spent about an hour watching them. It was hard to get a good picture, since the closest they ever came was about 100 - 150 yards, but we did see them.

If you're not famalier with "Whooping Cranes" they are on the endangered species list. There are only about 350 known Whooping Cranes in the world. It's believed that about 250 of them stop over in Nebraska each year. So, actually getting to see them was quite a thrill, especially for my wife.