Following this flight viewing, we got a tour through more parts of the refuge that are "off limits" any other time. The sun was trying to peek out behind the bank of clouds, and it picked the most opportune moment to do just that. Slowly, Bobbie took us past a pond with a pair of Sandhill Cranes, a roosting Great Blue Heron, and just behind him....that pesky pair of Whooping Cranes, foraging and preening. Even though it had to be captured through a glass window, this image is one I'll treasure for the sheer beauty of this amazing bird, rising, as it were, from the ashes of near-extinction.