National Weather Service radar has picked up some intriguing images in recent mornings near the Chiricahua Mountains southeast of Willcox. It’s suspected the images could be birds, possibly sandhill cranes returning to the Sulphur Springs Valley, where they spend the winter.
Here’s a post from the Facebook page of the Weather Service’s Tucson office: “We noticed something really neat this morning (and the past several mornings as well) using our doppler radar. Right at sunrise, there were distinct returns near the west slopes of the Chiricahua mountains.
“The returns are clearly biological in nature ... and dispersed in all directions,” the post said. “It was likely a huge flock of birds.”
People posting comments on the Facebook page suggested the radar blips might be sandhill cranes or possibly blackbirds. Cranes are a possibility, because the big birds — with wingspans of up to 7 feet — begin migrating to the valley near Willcox from the Rocky Mountains and mid-continent locations as early as September, according to a publication of the Wings Over Willcox Birding and Nature Festival.
The radar video is posted on the service’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NWSTucson online.
