Wings, wool and wonder: Faro celebrates annual crane and sheep festival

At Faro, Yukon's annual crane and sheep festival, spectators gather around a fire while up above, cranes are "kettling" — or swirling in circles. It looks like a dance in the sky, with birds nearly crashing into each other.  

Carrie McClelland is a biologist with the Yukon's Department of Environment. She says the kettling allows the birds to travel large distances.

"Anyone who's been a glider pilot knows that's how you gain altitude," she said.  

Every year, people from all across the Yukon and beyond visit Faro to take part in the festival and see the migration of thousands of sandhill cranes as they make their way from Texas to northern Yukon and Alaska, across the Bering Sea to Siberia.

The festival also features the Fannin sheep, also known as Dall sheep, which live around Faro and make their migration from their winter to summer habitat, a few kilometres away. 

McClelland says over 5,000 birds flew overhead on Friday night alone. She's been coming to the festival for 15 years and says seeing the migration never gets old. 

"It's amazing and beautiful. I liken it to seeing the northern lights. We get to see them a lot in the North, yet everyone still stops and looks. Same with the cranes, they've been coming here for millennia, and still the locals and visitors stop, watch and appreciate the site," she said. 

On a cliff face near the festival site, sheep graze on early season shrubs, regaining strength after losing about 20 per cent of their body weight over the winter. The female sheep, or ewes, like to be high on a cliff with their lambs because the challenging terrain helps keep predators at bay. 

Visitors in Faro gather and look through telescopes and binoculars scanning the mountain's slope for the sheeps' brown and white coats. 

Tina Freake is the festival's head organizer. She says she's happy with this year's turnout, both human and fowl.

"Mother Nature's agreeing with us. The animals are out. So, yeah, it's been really good," she said. 

The festival took place from Friday to Sunday with nature walks guided by territorial biologists and meals provided on a by-donation basis.

Now that this year's festival is over, Freake says she's on to planning the next one. And she says, she can't wait.