March 16, 2017 - This morning six hundred miles southeast of here there are half a million Sandhill Cranes staging on the Platte River in Central Nebraska making ready for their spring migration. For two weeks the cranes fill the sky along the river at dawn and dusk as far as the eye can see; and their loud, wild, high-pitched, brassy cry is the only sound that can be heard.  The sights and sounds of the cranes in this place is said to be one of the seven wonders of the natural world.  Some will travel as far as Alaska this spring.  It is said that the Sandhill Cranes and their migration is older than the Platte River itself.  We have visited the river in March a number of times and always promise ourselves we will return.  I am wishing we were there now beside the Platte River as the sun is rising.