While in Santa Rosa, I saw several posts on Facebook showing Sandhill Cranes at Ridgefield NWR and hoped to stop there and get some pictures of my own. Unfortunately, the rain that descended on us in Santa Rosa and kept us from visiting Bodega Bay got to Ridgefield before we could.
I wasn’t too upset, though, because I knew I had a dental appointment a few days later and thought I could get pictures then. When I read the weather report the day before my appointment, I couldn’t decide if it was even worth taking a camera since there was a 70% chance of rain. I decided to take it anyway and hope that the rain would start after we had been there.
Luckily, it was just overcast when we arrived, and the first thing we saw was a small flock of Sandhill Cranes near the entrance:
They were quite far away, but I managed to get two fairly good shots, and I was particularly fond of this one
which showed those huge wings from a perspective that I don’t remember ever seeing before.
We ended up seeing several small flocks of Sandhill Cranes on the auto tour,
most of them at a distance, but we got much closer just as we finished the auto tour.
I’ll have to admit that it’s always a thrill to see Sandhill Cranes, a bird I didn’t even know existing until I was almost 70 years old.