Sandhill Crane Update

The sandhill crane family that I mentioned in a previous post remains in the same area where the nesting took place. The 2 young colts hatched about 8-9 days ago after an incubation period of about 30 days. Since the colts hatched' I've been seeing the family in the grassy bottomland area surrounded by trees. This does not seem to me to be very typical brood rearing habitat - but time will tell if the young are raised successfully.

Only once in the past week have the cranes not protested my presence, so I assumed perhaps they had moved on . But then yesterday, they were present and very upset with my intrusion. When I saw them and they reacted so vociferously, I decided I had better vacate the premesis. But before doing so, I took this shot of one of the adults. It sure looked unhappy with me!!


This evening, I lead a group of 8 local birders through this same area. The cranes were not to be seen. Since it was rather windy and there were not many birds active, I decided to see if I could show the group the platform of old cattails where the cranes had incubated the eggs for a month. The fresh young cattails pretty much obscured the nest site but after a closer look, I spotted an adult crane on the nest site - with the 2 colts sitting on its back! A pretty neat sight for all to enjoy through my spotting scope. And the learing process continues for me. I was quite surprised to see this family return to the original nest site 8 or more days after hatching!