Flying North

One of the things I'll miss most about our current home is our proximity to a migration path. Nearly every morning this time of the year, we can step outside and hear sandhill cranes and arctic geese squawking and honking at each other as they prepare to land in the bosque near our house.

Yesterday at about noon, when we stepped out to take the Mr. to his class, I heard the characteristic call of many sandhill crane. I looked up, but couldn't locate them. Then I realized they were high, much higher than they've been lately, and that there were A LOT of them, all calling to each other as they flew in several loose v's.

My current "hypuppysis" (as the girls currently pronounce it) is that they're either practicing for the big trip North, or are actually on their way. I can't find any confirmation on the Bosque del Apache website, but my suspicions are reinforced by the facts that:

• Spring is approaching, as evidenced by our blooming forsythia and weeping cherry
• They were way way way high in the sky
• There were tons of them -- many more than I've seen flying together, other than when they're doing their mass exodus from the Bosque del Apache at dawn (photos of our recent visit to the "flyout" soon).