I love watching these huge birds and was very happy to find some come spring this year. The cranes are four and a half to five feet tall and have a six to seven foot wing span. I've added a couple of photos of them taking flight for interest. I've also added some surprising agressive behavior which we observed. That series would not be a high print quality but I found it to be quite an interesting exchange.
2012 arrived with much warmer weather than usual. The past two years we spotted the first returning Sandhill's in the third week of March. Whether we were just lucky to spot them or migration is earlier due to weather I can't say for certain, but the first we spotted was during the last week of February.