Lenticular sunrise

Every year, the sandhill cranes of the western US migrate through the Rockies, traveling in huge packs of thousands that will stop to feed in the dry winter fields in Colorado for a few days before moving along. The town of Monte Vista has embraced this and holds an annual sandhill migration festival, which we attended in 2022. We’d get up at 5am to get to the fields by 6am, when the birds started arriving for their morning meals…all in freezing winter temps with wind chills below 0 until about 9am.

The mornings would typically be awash in orange as seen here, and this particular day saw some beautiful lenticular clouds over the nearby range as a small flock of cranes made their way into the farmlands from their roosting spot. Often, you’d hear the groups before you saw them; they are extremely chatty birds!

Just as fast as the color appeared, it was gone, and the day got about its business, but for about 10 minutes, it was another world. I can only imagine what a sunrise would look like here if there was significant wildfire smoke in the area.

If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, the Great Sand Dunes National Park is around the corner and was a real highlight for us…nothing else like it in the US.