Return Of The Christmas Cranes

Three years ago on Christmas I brought you a picture of some sand hill cranes in the back pasture at my parents' house.  And today I'm bringing you a picture of four of them walking down the road.  Once again, they hung out for hours.  They were there when I arrived around noon, and they were still hanging around when I left after five.  I think someone down the road feeds them, so they were hanging around waiting for a handout.  Seeing four of these guys together is no big deal, I've shown you groups that big before.  It's usually two adults and two full-grown children that haven't left yet for their own new families.  I think they stay together until it's almost time to start raising the next batch of little ones, then the youngsters fly the coop, so to speak.

Babies

When I went to Sun-N-Fun this weekend, I stayed at my parent's house on Friday night. On the way in, I spotted the usual pair of sandhill cranes, but I also spotted an unexpected treat. They had a pair of chicks with them as they fed on the side of the road. I quickly parked my car, grabbed my camera and ran back down the road. Unfortunately, they had moved into a field beside the road, so I couldn't get any really close shots of them. But I don't think these are too bad.

They must not be too young. They were moving pretty well, even keeping a little ahead of mom and dad.  Wow, I haven't shown you any pictures of baby sandhills in a long time!  Well, maybe not so long.

I don't think they're old enough to be eating on their own, though, but lucky for me, they're old enough to be out and about. Hopefully both of these little guys will make it to adulthood. There are still plenty of pitfalls between here and there.

Big Bird

Continuing on with new pictures from my new D7, here's an extreme close-up of a sandhill crane yesterday. There was a flock of four of these guys wandering around in the neighbors yard. I stalked them for quite a while, actually filling up my memory card with pictures. I won't bore you with all of those, but I wanted to show you at least one. This is a full-size shot from my new camera, not cropped at all. This answers a question I've had about these birds and was never sure of the answer. The red part is skin, not feathers. You can zoom in close on this picture and see the little red, fleshy bumps next to the smooth gray feathers. Pretty cool.

Catchin' Some Zzzzzzs

Remember, it's always best to let sleeping sandhill cranes stand. These guys are grumpy when they're awake, imagine what they might be like if you woke one of them up!

Road Block

I don't know why, I just thought this picture of four sandhill cranes walking down the driveway to my parent's house was hilarious. I suppose you had to be there. The ones with their beaks open were making their loud cry, telling me to quit following them around and taking their picture. Sorry, guys, I couldn't resist.

Airborne

The morning that I went to the airshow early to see the hot air balloons go up, I spotted these sandhill cranes flying in. I've always wanted to shoot these guys in the air, but never had the luck of catching them when I had a camera around my neck. These guys happened to be in the right place at the right time, and so was I. You can tell that they are cranes by the way their necks stick out while flying. Most other birds with long necks tend to fold their neck up. Lots of other pictures of sandhill cranes here on the blog, so go have a look.

Cranes And Their Kin

A buddy of mine at work has been trying to get me to come by his house for a while. He said there was a big nest across the street and two sandhill cranes were tending it. I finally got the chance to go by there today, but no one was home. I wandered down the street on my own, but I never did find the nest. But I reckon it was too late anyway, because what I found was a mommy and daddy sandhill crane along with two little chicks. I don't know how old they are, but they can't be more than a week or two. I figured you'd enjoy seeing these little folks as they followed mommy and daddy around.



It's been several years since I've seen any baby sandhills. And last time I photographed them, it was raining...

Christmas Cranes

When I was at my parent's house yesterday for Christmas, these sandhill cranes were hanging out in the pasture behind the house. There must have been plenty of food to go around, because they were out there for hours. Unfortunately, when the sun came out later in the day, they were gone. But I doubt if I could have gotten them to pose as nicely as this again.

The End Of Last Year

I mentioned in my last post that I had reached the end of my 2006 weekly calendar, which isn't too shabby, given that we're two months into 2007. I wanted to share the picture off the back cover with you though, before I laid the whole thing to rest. This is a family of sandhill cranes that I used to pass on the way home every day. The only chance I got to shoot them happened to be one day in the rain, but I think I still got a decent shot.

Interspecies Romance

I was up in Lakeland today visiting the old homestead, when I heard the loud call of this sandhill crane. I had hoped to catch him in the air, but he seemed to have no plans to take off and fly. Instead, he was doing his crane dance next to this cow. I don't know exactly what was up with that, but then neither did the cow. As you can see, he was singularly unimpressed by the dancing crane.

Eye To Beak

Well, my camera is still in the shop. They want $226.20 to fix it. I guess I'm going to have to break down and do it. That's a chunk of the price of a new one, but not as big of a chunk as I was afraid of. And I'm really jonesing to get my camera back. There was a sandhill crane outside my window at work today, and I wanted to take his picture. The shot you see above is from one of their previous visits. These guys are really big, and they let you get fairly close. I suspect they must get fed by some folks, so they think I'm going to feed them. I'm sure you know how bad of an idea it is to feed wild animals, so I won't bore you with the lecture.

Sandhill Cranes: The Next Generation

Somedays it's a wonder I ever get to where I am going. On my way home from work tonight, not only did I spot the bald eagles I mentioned before, and a couple of glossy ibis (which I have yet to successfully photograph), I also saw a family of sandhill cranes. And as it's not too often you see the babies, especially this young, I just had to stop and shoot. The pictures aren't the best, since it was actually drizzling just a bit as I was shooting, but I think you'll get the idea.

This is as close as I was able to get to the babies. I didn't want to interfere with the little family, so I never got any closer than about 20 ft. I tried to stay in front of them and let them walk past me as I shot. It didn't work out that well, but it was the best I could do in a hurry. And I was on the lawn of a nursing home, so I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself.

This was the best photo I got of the whole family of four. See the raindrops in the pond? I told you it was drizzling...

Last, but not least, I caught Mommy shaking the rain from her feathers. You might think she's rearing up to try and scare away a predator or a pesky photographer, but I assure you that is not the case. When they want to scare something away, they come straight at it. Those big beaks can be formidable weapons, and their legs aren't too shabby, either. Perhaps you can't tell from the pictures, but these birds are between 3 and 4 feet tall! (I said this is the mommy, but I really don't know. The babies stayed close to both adults, and neither adult seemed to be leading the other one. I think male and females are pretty similar in appearance. Time to do some research.)

Uh-oh! I've been spotted!