What a Difference a Month Makes!!

On 18 May of this year, I was fortunate to get a few photos of a Sandhill Crane "colt" that was several days old and still on the nest with a parent. As you can see from these images(which I used in a previous blog), this young crane is quite diminutive in stature. Over the past month, I have encountered this crane family on a number of occasions, providing me the opportunity to monitor the growth of this colt - as young cranes are named. On these intermittent encounters, I have moved away from the family each time I saw them so as to not disturb them. But on this past Friday, 18 June, exactly one month since my initial photos of the young colt, I came up over a rise and the family group was directly in front of me. There were several good opportunities for photos, so as you might guess, I took advantage of them. Here is what I saw! The growth rate of that young one has been astounding. Weight/height comparisons would be interesting over that one month period. A quick internet search revealed that the colt may be ready to fly in the 9-10 week range. Since this brooding area is confined by highways, buildings, and tight fencing, flight is about the only way that the colt will be able to escape the area. So hopefully, it will do well over the next 5 weeks or so and then be able to fly away.

Last year, this same pair hatched 2 young which remained in the area for at least a month, when I lost track of them. So I'm not sure about the survival and fledging of those young. Maybe this year, I or some other lucky birder will see the young colt fly away!!