This is the only image from my trips out to Nebraska that I’ve ever printed. I’m not sure why but I can say it’s one of my favorites. You can pull a lot of stories out of this one image.
This pair of cranes is bonded, mating for life…they’ll spend much of their time together through migration and through nesting. Sometimes it’s hard to just isolate a couple birds in a sea of thousands…but here they are, with the mass remaining on the river ready to leave in short order.
The morning is foggy as so many spring morns are on the ultra shallow Platte. And although much of the land in Nebraska has been developed by the plow, the river’s edge remains much as it was over the years, with a mixture of bogs, marshes, and grasslands, along with some timbered areas.
This isolated world on this river is a time capsule of sorts. No doubt the river has changed from the pioneering days…when it was an “inch deep and a mile wide”. But due to its nature, it remains as a critical stop over and resting point for an ancient bird, on seemingly timeless spring passage of migration. I hope that never changes.