March 6th – 8th event speakers, movies and tours
By Ruthanne Johnson
Mark your calendars for the 37th Monte Vista Crane Festival, scheduled for March 6 – 8, 2020. Ticket sales for the tours, speakers, movies and other events will go live on January 2 at www.mvcranefest.org. The annual festival celebrates the remarkable journey of some 25,000 Sandhill Cranes through the San Luis Valley each spring—a migration that begins in southern New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and ends at the crane’s nesting grounds around Colorado’s Yampa Valley and other natural areas further north. While passing through the Valley, the tall, elegant birds gather by the thousands in and around the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. Refuge staff manages the onsite wetlands and barley fields specifically to attract cranes and other wildlife. “The wetlands offer nighttime roosting sites,” said refuge manager Suzanne Beauchaine. “The barley fields are mowed just before the festival, providing a virtual smorgasbord for the cranes.”
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