RETURN TO FARM COUNTRY

 

I’ve been focusing on spring flowers and blossoms so it has been over a month since I’ve visited the farm country I so enjoy south of town.

 

 Right away I saw two adult geese at the edge of a pond.  Their three young, yellow goslings were so small they were almost hidden in the tall grass.

 

 

On the next corner was another pond filled with a second geese family.  There were six goslings and these young ones were a bit older.  Their feathers had turned from yellows into light browns.

 

I drove my regular route in search of something.  Many fields were plowed and ready for planting but I didn’t see any wildlife in the area.

 

 I widened my search and headed over to the Anderson Creek marsh, hoping to find some ducks or a heron.  None of those but I did see some interesting swamp grasses formed into small hillocks.

 

 As I drove away from the marsh, I noticed the sun was getting lower in the sky.  It was around eight o’clock.  I came upon this lovely field, golden hay already growing.

 

 I decided to do my route one last time in hopes of seeing some cranes.  It was nearing their feeding time.  I went onto a two-track near a gas drilling site and flushed a small flock. 

 

 At first I wasn’t sure what they were because they were uncharacteristically silent, but as I got a close-up of them in flight, I could see they were Sandhills.  Probably a dozen or so.

 

 On my way out of the two-track, I spied my pair of Sandhill Cranes eating in a field of cottony dandelions.  Plenty of seeds for them there.

 

 One crane caught sight of me so I moved on, not wanting to disturb their feeding.  I had a hunch they hadn’t bred yet, or one of them would be attending to a nest.  Maybe I’d get the chance to watch them dance yet.