A funny thing happened as I reviewed crane photos I had taken on 3/12/15 at the Monte Vista Refuge. As you recall, that was just on the leading edge of the Crane Festival Weekend with all its visitors. It was 2 weeks after the fact when I examined the photos, that I noticed a group of birds in the middle ground that proved to be 28 Greater White-fronted Geese (Rio Grande County)! This is the largest group of this species ever recorded in the San Luis Valley, smashing previous groups of 8 and 9 birds. Only two reports this spring showed single birds present. So how did we all miss such a large group?
I think the Cranes have a tendency to steal the show and our attention. And many persons don't have the optics to see distances so birds blended into the 5-10,000 birds present. Many persons enjoy the birds on a more fundamental level and are not there to identify different kinds. It is indeed easy to just feel the birds and all their magnificence. It also reminds me that one can do birding and one can do photography, but to do both, will cause compromises of one or the other. I was quite focused on catching the birds in the foreground in flight, and less concerned with the identification of background birds. This does not mean I won't continue to combine both, but at least I know what I am up against.
Anyway, yesterday cranes were barely visible, tiny specks cast against dark-based cumulus clouds....spiraling upward and onward.
John Rawinski
Monte Vista, CO
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