In early January I headed out to the Vancouver Lake Lowlands in southern Washington to visit the Sandhill Cranes. There’s a wintering habitat there that serves as a feeding and staging pitstop along the crane migration path. Nancy and I discovered this local wonder last year thanks to a tour led by the Columbia Land Trust, who has been cultivating a crane-friendly space near Frenchman’s Bend since 2016. Nancy blogged about that experience, and my photoblog from that trip is here. The Columbia Land Trust has a recording of a 2020 presentation that explains their project and the results as of that date.

This year was much more temperate than the cold rain and dense fog we encountered last year. There were fewer cranes, and I didn’t see any snow geese this time. But the cranes were magnificent, and it was a great morning of exploring.