Leon Turnbull Photography

I took the family out to Cosumnes River Preserve to see some Sandhill Cranes. Every year at this time, they stop in this area for the winter on their migration journey. They are a treat to see, especially around sunset and sunrise.

We arrived a couple hours or so before sunset at the Preserve. Quite a few people about, but not much in the way of birds. We saw some ducks, geese, stilts, a falcon, and one crane. But they were all too far away to get any photos. The trouble with these preserves is they make the walking paths too far away from where the birds are. I guess that makes sense in a way. I know my own kids were a rather noisy and loud bunch as we walked along the path, and would’ve scared any birds nearby close to death. But unless you have a 1000mm lens, it is impossible to get any good photos of the birds. I only have a 400mm lens.

I was unsure exactly where the best location would be to see the Sandhill Cranes as they came in around sunset. I read about a couple different spots. We decided to get back in the car and go to one of them. We parked along the road, and again, we saw plenty of birds including cranes, but were still too far away. But I must have crossed some invisible line along the roadside, because some rude guy in a truck drove up and told me I was trespassing. Don’t you see the signs? Ummm, as I looked up and down the road as far as my eye can see, I saw absolutely zero signs. My eyesight may not be too great, but my wife has perfect eyesight and she didn’t see any signs either. And I was right along the road anyway, not even anywhere close to the birds. Thanks buddy. Anyway, we waited there until sunset but saw zero cranes flying into the area. It was extremely disappointing. We had driven all that way from Folsom and basically saw nothing.

We decided to go back to the main area of the Preserve. The sun was setting in the west and the sky was very colorful. As we waited there for awhile past sunset, we did see quite a few of the Sandhill Cranes flying in to the area. It turned out to be a pretty good show after all. But it was rather dark by this time for taking photos. And I was not very happy with any of my results. The best I could do was this one with the cranes silhouetted against the sunset sky.