COPING THROUGH FRESH AIR

The evening news was just about to come on, and I knew I couldn’t take another newscast devoted to the Coronavirus.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m taking this pandemic very seriously through self-isolation, but everyone needs a break sometimes.  A safe break, that is.  Getting fresh air away from others is one way to do that.  A walk.  A bike ride.  For me, a drive outside taking pictures is my way to cope.  And with temperatures nearing 50 degrees, I can even put my window down.  Woohoo!

So Gracie and I headed to the countryside.  The roads were nearly empty.  I was the only car heading south on M-37.  As I turned off the highway onto my normal route, right away, I heard birdsong of the Red-winged Blackbird.  This one was trilling away on a pussy willow branch.

A solitary Ring-billed Gull was walking with its silhouette along the edge of a farmland pond.

I also saw several groups of geese congregating near other water sources in the area.  Surely, they’d been migrating together.  And then I heard a familiar sound!  One I’d been waiting to hear for over a month!

I wasn’t far from where I thought the sound was coming, so I took off around the block.  There, in front of a thicket, I saw a pair of Sandhill Cranes grazing and preening near the roadside.  I crept by slowly, not wanting to scare them off.

I’ve seen an abundance of cranes in this same block over the past few years.  I’ve watched them pair bond and dance on several occasions.  Last year, a crane family consisting of the parents and two juveniles occupied the block and were an object of both my affection and photography.  I wondered whether these two cranes were the parents of the two juveniles born last spring.  At around nine or ten months old, juveniles typically separate from their parents and join other non-breeding flocks to begin searching for their own mates.

Along with Snowy Owls, Sandhill Cranes are my favorite subjects to photograph.  They are such beautiful and interesting creatures, with their red and gray crowns and red eyes. They are very so statuesque, sometimes reaching four feet tall.  Their wingspan can even reach seven feet.

Sandhill Cranes are very loyal critters.  They mate for life, which sometimes lasts twenty years.  Whenever I see cranes in the fields, one is pecking for food, while the other stands watch for threats, including eagles, owls, foxes, and wolves.

The cranes were ready to move on, and so were Gracie and I.  I tell you, though, a drive or walk into the natural world can do wonders for one’s mental health.  It was nice for me to focus my energy on something else, for a change.