I love to meander the country roads, and after two days of heavy rain I was hoping to get some photos of the autumn foliage before the leaves were gone.  The sandhill cranes were a surprise bonus!

I had never even seen or heard of a sandhill crane until a trip to Wisconsin with Kim's family about 15 years ago, where we saw lots of them.  And I so clearly remember the first time I saw them in Indiana...I actually HEARD them first in the early Sunday morning darkness, bugling and squawking in the field behind our house about 10 years ago.  I couldn't wait for the sun to come up to find out what that sound was, and I was SO EXCITED I didn't want to leave for church.

Since then, we've seen a few of them nearly every fall and spring during their migration between summer breeding grounds up north and winter homes in the southern states.

So this was my fall 2018 spotting!  

A drive through New Castle's Memorial Park for a shot of my favorite spot there...

An afternoon of two of my favorites...

...sandhill cranes and fall foliage.