For the past month flocks Sandhill Cranes have been dining on harvested grain fields in Jackson and Scott Counties.
The seasonally migratory birds can be heard by their distinctive trilling call.
Large flocks of the birds can be found south of Seymour in harvested fields, the Ewing bottoms west of Brownstown, and the Muscatatuck Bottoms in Scott and southern Jackson Counties.
The recent river flooding helped to congregate the cranes into more compact areas. They like resting at night in shallow water as splashing water can serve as an alarm to predators.
~photo by Donna Stanley, USFWS