When Deb Quantock McCarey heard the unmistakable bugling cries of sandhill cranes flying high above her Oak Park home last week, she ran outside to see them without even stopping to put on her shoes.
EJ Roginic was at work in Chicago, meeting with her boss, when she heard the hundreds of birds and abruptly excused herself to go outside and take a video.
“I walked out on him,” she said with a chuckle.
Winter-weary Chicagoans are once again thrilling to one of the region’s most dramatic signs of spring: the return of flocks of crimson-capped, 5-foot tall, loudly bugling sandhill cranes from as far away as Georgia and Florida. In the past week, neighbors have been alerting neighbors, Facebook birding pages have lit up with sightings, and text alerts have ricocheted back and forth among cellphones: “The sandhills are coming! The sandhills are coming!”
Retiree Paul McFadden saw 1,200 to 1,500 birds resting in a field in Barrington Hills on March 5 and posted photos at the Illinois Birding Network Facebook page.
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