68 Nebraskaland • March 2021
and quite possibly that of those with
reservations in the days to come. And
you won't be welcomed back.
I've spent fi ve nights in the blind.
I would have added another night or
two had I not taken the spring of 2019
off for shoulder surgery. Being on the
river would have been much more fun.
Each day in the blind has been
diff erent. More often than not,
the cranes will be close: other
photographers with better luck have
had them as close as 10 yards. And you
might have birds on three sides of the
blind.
Most photo opportunities come
in the morning. In this reach, the
cranes start piling back into the river
downstream near the Alda bridge
when they return from staging areas
in nearby fi elds. By the time they fi ll
the river from east to west and reach
the island, it can be well after sunset.
During the peak of the migration in
Nearly 30 minutes after sunset, moving cranes and water are blurred by a half-second exposure.
A bald eagle, one of a pair nesting downriver, fl ies past the blind.
