MEDARYVILLE — Sally Arroyo isn’t a stranger to sandhill cranes. The 4-foot-tall birds sometimes stop right near her house in Homer Glen, Illinois, where they nibble on the leftover corn at a farm across the street.
“They land in our neighborhood, and they’ll walk right down the sidewalk,” she said.
But on a recent weekday evening in November, Arroyo saw more than just a few solitary cranes out for a stroll. After an 80-mile drive, she witnessed thousands upon thousands glide into the marshes and open fields at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area just north of Madaryville.
For decades, massive flocks of the long-necked, thin-legged birds have made the Indiana marsh their primary stop-over location…
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