Greetings everyone! Hope you enjoyed my last post on the Sandhill Crane Colts – hopefully at least got some pleasure out of seeing the draw dropping cuteness produced by our wilder cohabitants. Ron mentioned it in his comment, but I received a bit of sad news from the Chain O’ Lakes State Park ranger the day I wrote that post. If you recall, we were up there camping over the weekend with the goal to get some birding in. Like clockwork, my favorite Sandhill Crane couple were out an about. Yes, that same couple that produced the Colts featured in the last post. Now for the depressing news, this year, no Colts. Just the two of them foraging alone on the side of the road. A ranger happened to drive up while I was standing there admiring them – no camera, just enjoying the moment for a change. During our quick chat he informed me none of the Crane pairs had Colts this year. The current thinking is the huge amount of rain and flooding destroyed the nests/eggs. That news brought some definite sadness as I was looking forward to photographing the latest additions.
Nature does what nature does – at least I have the images and memories from our previous encounters. I also gave a foreshadowing of today’s topic in the previous writing. Animal behavior fascinates me and I am on the constant lookout for interesting interactions while out in the field. Whether it’s an intra-species interaction or inter-species encounters (link here) or maybe intriguing relationship with humans (link here) – nothing keeps me more entertained than learning from these engagements, trying to predict behavior and more critical .. trying to get it in the tin.
Hit the jump to experience some Crane behavior.
