McNeal – Page 3 – Dithyramb

Bulrush silhouettes and reflections at Whitewater Draw, McNeal, Arizona.

Sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) at Whitewater Draw, near McNeal, Arizona.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department estimates that the 2020 crane population in the Sulfur Springs Valley is about 27,000 birds, with more that half concentrated at the draw. The flock assembles there each night at dusk after a day of gleaning food from nearby farm fields. Then the birds disperse again at first light, flying away from the draw in long skeins. This photo shows only a few hundred of the cranes coming in for the night.

For a discussion of the birds’ binomial see this old post. Please click the photo for an enlarged view.

Ladder-backed woodpecker (Dryobates scalaris)

at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal, Arizona.

Ice studies.

At Whitewater Draw near McNeal, Arizona.

Sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis), at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal, Arizona.

Sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis), at Whitewater Draw, Cochise County, Arizona.

These late-afternoon photos at the draw were taken while most of the sandies were still gleaning the adjacent fields. As evening deepened the few shown here were joined to form a flock of about 20,000 cranes. It is an astonishing sight to see so many of these big birds at once.

View of Potter Mountain, in the Mule Mountains range. From the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal, in Cochise County, Arizona.