These are the best images from a quick trip to the  Monte Vista NWR at the very end of March with my dad and our photographic friends, Mark and Claudia Brown.  Conditions were not quite as good as last year (we were a little late for the peak of the crane migration), but we still had plenty to shoot.  The image at the top of this post is easily my favorite from the trip.  It is unusual to get this close to a roosting crane, let alone in such great light.  Since I couldn’t get a direct sun angle without trespassing, I picked an angle where the sidelight defined the bird’s feathers.   Fortunately, the bird was oblivious to me, giving me plenty of time to work into a good shooting position.

Here are some other images from the trip.  (This min-gallery may look a little funny if you’re reading this with an RSS reader. Sorry.)  Click on a thumbnail for a larger view.

Note: I posted some landscape shots from the same trip here and here.