Few other things symbolize springtime in the Rockies like the return of the cranes in March. Flying back from their warm winter quarters in the South they stop over in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains and wait for milder weather to stabilize. Thousands of these big Sandhill Cranes sometimes fill the sky, practicing their formation flights with the tall 14,000foot peaks as a backdrop.
Note: The heat radiating of the ground is creating turbulence in the air and therefore somewhat unreal, fuzzy light conditions when shooting with a long lens like I used in this image, lending the photo an almost surreal quality. I chose to convert the color image to black & white because I felt it made the cranes blend even more with the landscape. The blue of the sky was simply too distracting.

Gear:
Nikon D810, Sigma 150-600mm, Manfrotto Carbon Tripod

Settings: Lens at 600mm, f/11, 1/640 sec, ISO 125