RETURN TO MIGRATING CRANES

 

Last week, I was out too early to catch most of the migrating cranes, but, as I was leaving, I saw a few who were flying in.   

It was amazing to watch them floating to the ground, their wings outstretched and their legs down and ready to land.  Such graceful creatures to watch.

 

 I was closer to the group this time so I got better images.  I could see that there were two families with juveniles.  One had a single colt and the other had two.

 

 When they were all assembled on the ground, I could see it wasn’t a large group.  I counted thirteen in all.  Nothing like the 400-500 reported on the Audubon alert.

 

 As I watched the group on the ground, I noticed two other groups in the air flying overhead.  I thought they were going to land, but they kept going.

 

 With other cranes in the air, the cranes on the ground became unsettled and took to the air.  It seemed like they took off in groups, family by family.

 

 It is so much fun, but quite the challenge to track these birds while in flight.  At least they are big enough to get a focus point on!

 

 It wasn’t long before the whole group was in the air, although I couldn’t get all thirteen at once.  I wondered why they’d broken off from the larger group in the first place.  Was it just a regular pit stop to catch a snack and relieve themselves?  Or were they stopping to give the young ones a rest?

 

 The cranes weren’t flying very high so I thought they might be joining the rest of the group at another field.  So after this picture, I drove on, trying to follow them to their next destination.  They outpaced me, however, as they flew over the fields to some unknown destination.  I knew my crane season was coming to an end.