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"Seeing the take off is amazing, I had been told. But it is the sound that stays with you. Waiting in this darkened, high desert landscape, I was reminded by my frosty extremities that this corner of Arizona rises to more than 4100 feet. This was my first visit to Willcox, AZ for the town&amp;#039;s annual celebration of the sand hill crane&amp;#039;s migration. Each year the birds depart their winter home on the eastern edge of the Sonoran desert for their northern territories. I had heard about &amp;quot;Wings Over Willcox&amp;quot;, as the southeastern Arizona celebration is billed, and had been eager to introduce the birding extravaganza to my sons. My own interest in the cranes began when I first read A Sand County Almanac in my 20s. Aldo Leopold, the late Wisconsin naturalist wrote of his own fondness for the sand hills in his 1949 classic.  Each year this farming community in CochiseCounty, roughly 80 miles east of Tucson, welcomes winter visitors of multiple species. Plenty of heat-seeking humans show up from places like Calgary and Kansas. And as many as 30,000 sand hill cranes find their way to a 60 square mile roosting site near Willcox. The Arizona Game and Fish Department owns the land where the birds roost and makes sure it is flooded each year to create the six inch deep pool the cranes find so appealing.  Nature Calls In an era when My Space, Facebook, video games and sporting events are mainstays for the modern teen, it is not easy to arouse enthusiasm for a weekend spent in a small Arizona town where the highlight of the adventure is a predawn excursion to see a mass of long-necked, pointy-billed, spindly- legged birds take flight. Yet, I am fortunate to have raised nature lovers. In an era when journalist and youth advocate Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, has sparked a national discussion about the lack of time children spend in the natural world, I feel grateful my sons have grown up exposed to desert wild flowers, the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, and now, the dance of the sand hill cranes.There is much to be learned from these ancient birds. Michael Forsberg, a nature photographer and expert on crane migration and social behaviors, says we should take note of these creatures that live a long life, up to 25 years, despite an arduous lifestyle. Some are known to commute as far as Siberia. National Geographic magazine considers this avian traveling show one of the continent&amp;#039;s two greatest wildlife events, sharing honors with the great caribou migration. The residents of Willcox must be proud. Lift Off And so it was that we found ourselves in the cold, dark Arizona morning, waiting, layered up to ward off the morning chill, for the nature show to begin.  And then we heard it. As the rising sun spewed light on the shallows, a jarring whoosh filled the air and washed over us like a wave over sand. In that moment, thousands of birds, with a five to six foot wingspan, and weighing as much as 14 pounds, took flight. They embarked on a day that would include lollygagging in nearby corn fields and flying in V formation to the delight of mesmerized onlookers. Later they would return, to roost once again, in this SulpherSpringsValley sanctuary.  Thankfully, the new day sun, and the somehow haunting ritual, warmed us as well.  As we settled into a welcome breakfast of eggs over easy and piles of pancakes, we spoke of the cold and the sheer number of birds that took flight.  And the sound; the amazing sound of the sand hill cranes, in unison, breaking the sacred silence of morning. IF YOU GO   1-800-200-2272.   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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