Sandhill Crane Nest Success!

For the past 3 years, and possibly longer, a pair of Sandhill Cranes has been nesting in almost exactly the same location on a small cattail wetland near Helena. Nest success in 2008 was unknown since I was not able to monitor it after I first discovered it. But last year, there were 2 "colts" hatched and reared in the area for at least a month before they disappeared or moved. This year, I first located the nest site with incubating adult on April 16, and checked again periodically to follow the status of the nesting attempt.

On Monday of this week, as I viewed the adult attending the nest, I noticed that she seemed to be sitting differently than when I have viewed her at other times while she was incubating. So I looked again on Tuesday, and there was a young crane standing in front of her as she remained on the nest. Since I was not carrying my camera at the time, something that rarely occurs, I raced back to my vehicle to retrieve camera and tripod in hopes that the young one would still be present when I returned. And lucky for me, both the adult and young remained on the nest. Now the young "colt", as young cranes are named, was climbing over the back of the adult and obtaining good photo images was difficult. So I located a good hiding place and waited for the colt to reappear. I could see occasional movement on the back of the adult where the colt was apparently enclosed by the adult's feathers. After about 30 minutes, the colt reappeared and climbed up on its mother's back, and I was able to get some photo images. Then the adult decided to stand up, but she stayed on the nest and seemed to be readjusting some of the nesting material while doting on her youngster. Apparently, my location was far enough away that she did not seem to be especially disturbed by my presence. For this, I felt very fortunate because cranes seem to be quite vigilant and wary of intruders, and I certainly did not want to disturb this nesting effort in any way. The next day, Wednesday, I returned to again take a look. The birds were now gone from the nesting area, but I soon located them, now with the other adult pair member in attendance. They were a hundred yards or more away along another pond and headed toward a nearby grassy area to do some feeding. And even at this distance, one member of the pair stayed with the colt while the other came toward me in a defensive action. Not wanting to disturb them, I vacated the area. As I was leaving, a red fox ran up over the dike and disappeared in a nearby gravel pit area. No young colt for breakfast today!!