Hello, new to the list and amateur birder here!

This morning I saw a pair of massive (4'-5' wingspan) sandhill cranes in my fields here in Fairfield, a few miles east of St. Albans.  They were picking through my windrows for 10-20 minutes and weren't very skittish.  They did eventually take off south with an impressive disturbance FWOMP!  I wasn't completely sure what they were until I did a WhatBird search and saw that that size, red eyepatches/crown pretty much seals the deal.  Their stalky legs are quite the sight.

Normally we get killdeers aplenty, sandpipers, robins, swallows, and the occasional pheasants, but these were a rarity for here (and I guess, for our part of the country too).

Jeffrey Nelson
Swamp Rd, Fairfield, VT