Last summer a pair of Sandhill Cranes flew low and right over my head as I was hiking. It was a thrilling experience and ever since then I’ve made it a point to stop and look up whenever birds are flying nearby or overhead.
The Tundra Swans returned to Goose Pond in March. There were hundreds of them. Jill and I visited on a day when the area was under a wind advisory for gusts up to 45mph.
The swans along with geese and ducks were having trouble flying. Sometimes they were barely making any forward progress and were just treading air.
Usually I have a horrible time photographing birds in flight. I often end up with a blurry shot of the sky with just the tip of a wing in it.
Because the birds were slowed way down by those strong winds, it allowed us to take some fun photos for once. Plus we got a really good look at some beautiful birds.
The only challenge was that those high winds also brought along dust and smoke from storms and wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma, so we didn’t have the best lighting conditions.
