Layover
As I rolled away from my parents’ house on Tuesday evening, I noticed a lean gray figure standing in a vacant lot. I said to my parents, with my car window down, “I don’t think that’s a heron… that’s way too tall to be a heron.” Mom perked up and said that they’d had a heron hanging around their lagoon recently. I started going through my slim inventory of wading birds, wood stork? no, they’re white. What was it then? a crane? sand crane?
I drove slowly, quietly down the street, the bird obviously unafraid of my minivan, I rolled the windows down so the kids could get a good look, and I attempted to snap a pic with my phone. Yes. Crane. He had a red head, and I remembered seeing cranes at the local Wildlife Sanctuary.
I put the car in reverse, and slowly rolled back to my parents’ house where they were standing outside with their dog. “Yes! a crane… sand-something crane”. Dad ran into the house to grab his iphone, on which he had a bird guide application. He came back and searched “sand crane”, and found “sandhill crane.” bingo! That was it.
What a glorious animal to have hanging around! He was absolutely beautiful. I showed a photo to a few of my biology classmates, and they said that sandhill cranes are most likely in migrating season right now, and the birds mate for life. My classmates were left questioning where the “mate” was. We pondered a bit. Someone theorized that he/she could have lost his/her mate.
The crane has been lingering around my parents’ neighborhood all week. I think, according to my Dad, as of Friday afternoon however, he/she may be gone.
-
- I set the shutter on delay so I could get in the shot with the bird, but dang it that beak was a little intimidating and I didn’t want to bend over too far… you can’t tell from the perspective, but that beak is literally 2-3 feet from my head.
Little did I know, my father was taking some sneaky photos while I was busy with my own camera… sheesh, please overlook the fat rolls.
