We left Tucson after a 2 month stay at Tucson Meadows RV Resort heading to Whitewater Draw State Wild Life Area. The attraction is the thousands of Sandhill Cranes that spend the winter here in southeast Arizona. There's also about 6 free dry camping sites near the viewing area. When we arrived there wasn't enough space for us so we setup at the overflow area, about 1/4 mile away. It wasn't much of a tragedy, we were all by ourselves with none of the traffic coming into the viewing area. Don't get me wrong, we'd like to come back sometime and stay in the main camping area for the convenience, but this time we were perfectly happy where we were.
First afternoon at the viewing area, lots of birds but not much activity
Beautiful sunset over the Mule Mountains.
March 2, 2019
We had a leisurely morning, getting over to the viewing area about 9 am. Again not much happening. We knew the major activity happens a little before sunrise but we weren't ready to get up that early today. Besides, the plan was to spend the day visiting Bisbee, AZ, about a half hour away. Bisbee is an old mining town founded in 1880. It's become a big tourist stop since the mine closed in 1975. More on Bisbee in a future post.
Another colorful sunset.
March 3, 2019
Our last day, we braved the 31 degree morning and got there about 1/2 hour before sunrise. The Cranes had already started heading out for the day's feeding. It sounded like they were all squawking at the same time, the sound was amazing.
Here's some Sandhill Crane pictures and maybe some videos (I've had mixed results trying to add videos in the blog)
Here's some Sandhill Crane pictures and maybe some videos (I've had mixed results trying to add videos in the blog)
See waves of Cranes on the orange horizon.
Yellow-headed Blackbirds
Cranes returning about 10 am.
A trifecta... 3 days, 3 beautiful sunsets out our back window.
99% of our photos are taken with our cell phones and the wide angle views just weren't good enough for this action. The above videos were taken with a little point and shoot camera.
The below YouTube link is a blogger we follow who has much better photo and video equipment. They preceded us at Whitewater Draw by only a few days.
The below YouTube link is a blogger we follow who has much better photo and video equipment. They preceded us at Whitewater Draw by only a few days.
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