I was fortunate to be able to see the migration of several thousand sand hill cranes last night. While I was too far away to be able to take a good picture binoculars provided a good view of these birds flying into a corn field to feed and rest. There were thousands there already when I arrived at 5 PM and they make a lot of noise jumping around and feeding and occasionally fighting. They kept arriving. Mostly in small groups of two or six and occasionally twelve or so would fly in. They fly in formation with what seems like an agreed upon pattern. When ready to land they stick their legs out, hold their wings steady and glide onto the ground. They're large birds standing 3-4 feet high and over 5 feet fully extended when flying. As the sun started to set the numbers of birds increased dramatically. As they prepared to land the sun hit the underside of their wings and their bellies and they glowed a smoky pink. By 6 PM it was almost dark and they started to arrive in even larger numbers. I counted groups of over 50 birds coming in one group after another. As I left the area there were hundreds of birds descending. I'm not a birder but this was an experience that I would recommend to anyone. Most definitely.

http://azgfd.net/artman/publish/NewsMedia/A-record-40-499-sandhill-cranes-counted-in-southern-Arizona.shtml