Three Tenors and friends

These sandhill cranes are my entry for the Camera Critters Meme...click on the link above to join the participants or to just visit a few more. Now to the pictures, I am sorry there are so many of them but I had a heck of a time narrowing them down to this many. I really hope you will click on them for the full benefit.

This one above is the one I call The Three Tenors...

Wednesday was one of the nicer days this week and we decided to go north to the Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife area...we were hoping to fish a little bit but all except one small part of the lake was still frozen. So, we decided to go to the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife area....I was hoping to see the Sandhill Cranes. In talking to another visitor there at Willow Slough, he said his friend had called him and said the cranes had started returning.
So even though it was later in the afternoon, we headed over there. It was only about a 30-45 minute drive. I must say it was so worth the time and effort.
I know what we saw was only a drop in the bucket to what it will be like later. I cannot image what the sound will be like cause it was so noisy with the ones that were there...I would think there was a hundred or two of them and these are just a few photos of them.
Don't you just love their landing still...it made me want to laugh out loud to watch them. They remind me of someone in a parachute...do they you? Time after time we seen them land like these.
They have a wingspan of almost 7 feet...and are around 3 1/2 feet tall.
The ones here were closet to the viewing stand...
We were there about and hour--till closing which is at 4:00 p.m. All that time they were coming and going, but for the most part coming.

We were walking down the ramp and heard all this noise. We turned around and almost every single one of them had taken flight and was leaving. There were deer there also and they took off running, only to pause and look.
I can only say I want to go back!
and remember to click on these photos to enlarge.