A favorite seasonal visitor is back in Colorado — and with it, a festival in its honor.

The 40th Monte Vista Crane Festival is set for the weekend of March 10, with three days of celebrating the dramatic birds that flock to the San Luis Valley this time of year.

Tens of thousands of sandhill cranes are known to stop in the valley’s nutritious fields and wetlands along their migration north. Their ancient songs, dances and flights under the Sangre de Cristo peaks are annually cherished by the masses, who come with binoculars and cameras to admire one of the world’s oldest living species.

You don’t have to buy tickets for tours and seminars over the festival weekend. The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge is free to drive and see the cranes, which can stand up to 4 feet tall and boast 7-foot wingspans. The Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge is another popular viewing area in the valley. The cranes are most active around dawn and dusk.

Also free for the weekend: entry to Monte Vista’s Ski Hi Complex, home of the annual nature arts and craft fair.

The region’s population of sandhill cranes are estimated around 20,000. They spend winter in New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico and stop in the San Luis Valley on their way up to breeding grounds in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

For a schedule of events and more information on the Monte Vista Crane Festival, go to mvcranefest.org