Sand Hill Cranes

Had a big flock of them high overhead last week.  My farm is right on their migration route so they're here in this area in the spring and again in the fall when they're headin south. Big flocks often stop to feed in the field to the west of the house and sometimes on takeoff from there, they'll fly so low they just clear the roof of the house.   Magnificent sight at close range, but it drives the dogs nuts!

had a cabbage farmer tell me they taste like chicken

I watched a special about them on "Nature" I believe it was.
The one thing that stuck in my head was the statement made that the majority of what most people think are geese, flying overhead hollering, are not geese, but in fact sand hill cranes.
That being said, around here, the majority of what I think are geese are in fact geese, as they set down on the neighbors ponds.
At Barren River Lake, between Glasgow and Scottsville Kentucky, such huge migratory herds of them stop there that it is a huge tourist attraction with tours and everything. 

shameless dude wrote: they'll also dig up and eat the seed that we all plant! tears the heck outta planted fields

We have had Sand Hill Cranes here for many years. Yes they will pull corn out and go right up the row. DNR gives control permits to farmers to shoot them causing crop damage. I have a pair here every year and they raise one chick. Neighbor kid asked me one time what kind of birds they were when he heard the rooster crowing. I said Dinosaur Birds or Teradactyl's some people say,but to me they're Sand Hill Cranes!