The Othello Sandhill Crane Festival, mostly Friday and Saturday, looked different this year, without its guided bus, boat and hike tours, wine and food samples, live art showing at The Old Hotel Art Gallery and more than 40 speakers at the Othello High School.

But the 35,000 or so cranes are still here, and any enthusiast will say that’s what matters.

Attracted to Othello’s rich croplands and wetlands, thousands of sandhill cranes migrating in the Pacific Flyway land each March for a few weeks before continuing on to breed in Alaska.

While this is the largest concentration in the flyway, getting a good look still takes some skill. Cindy Nunez drove from Tacoma, she said, and saw a bunch of them in the open fields off state Route 17, near Potholes Reservoir.

She drove right past, thinking there would be more of them closer to Othello, but the timing wasn’t quite right.

Kyle and Corday Wilkinson, from Spokane, saw cranes in the morning, flying through the Drumheller Overlook, they said.

The best time to see the birds is in the morning and after 4 p.m., said Jenn Stevenson, director of Othello’s Old Hotel Art Gallery. She spent the festival drawing on printout maps, directing tourists to pink crane symbols, the “hotspots.”

About 200 people tuned in to the virtual lectures, Stevenson said. In an average year, 1,500-2,000 people come to town from all over. The art gallery is packed, wall to wall.

Tourists this year came from just as far, she said, but in fewer numbers.

The virtual nature wasn’t all bad, though, she said. It made the festival put together some things organizers have wanted to do for years, but haven’t had the time.

This includes marketing videos for the festival, one on Othello and one on cranes and why they come to Othello. The festival has an official YouTube channel now, too.

Organizers also launched a photo contest, Stevenson said. People have been sending in more photos than she can keep up with, as many as 25 a person.

Photos run on the Sandhill Crane Festival Facebook page, and the contest ends when the month does, Stevenson said.

The original first place winner was to win $100, Stevenson said, but now she thinks it will be much greater.

“We have scenic shots, we have crane shots, we have all kinds of bird shots, we have marmots and porcupines and bugs and just rocks, there’s some stunning stuff,” she said.

This may be the oddest year in the festival’s two-decade tenure, she said, but these changes will improve the festival for years to come.

Sam Fletcher can be reached at sfletcher@columbiabasinherald.com.