Again, this year, we had a pair of sandhill cranes nest right around the corner from our house. The eggs finally hatched and there are now 2 new crane “colts” enjoying the neighborhood. The cranes chose to build their nest by a pond that they used 2 years ago. Luckily it was in a spot that was easy to see and photograph. The images I shot were right after the first egg hatched. The colt was less than a day old. The second egg hatched the next day and within another couple of days the family had moved on.
Female Sandhill Crane Nudges Her New Chick
A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
The nesting season is in full force. It seems like there are babies everywhere. We picked one day recently to check on bald eagle nests and found a total of 6 new eaglets in 4 nesting sites! It appears that they are all well on their way to growing into young adults.
Two Juvenile Bald Eagles in Their Nest
There are also many sandhill crane babies around. The colts started appearing several weeks ago and we continue to see youngsters of all sizes. Most owls have grown and left their nests, and many songbirds are building nests or feeding chicks. It’s a busy time that will continue for another couple of months.
On Wednesday I had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of another endangered species. The whooping crane was near extinction in the 1940s with fewer than 30 birds alive. Today there are still only about 800 of these beautiful birds remaining in North America. There have been substantial efforts to increase their population over the years, but those efforts have not been a rousing success. A group of non-migratory cranes were introduced to central Florida in the early 1990s. Those releases ended in 2004. We believe the pair of cranes that we photographed may be from the original group. A project to teach cranes to migrate from Wisconsin to Florida using ultralight aircraft began in 2001 but due to numerous failures, the program ended in 2016.
While we were observing the cranes, we witnessed an interesting event. A lone sandhill crane landed next to the pair of whooping cranes. The sandhill was definitely not welcome. The whooping cranes got very agitated and began calling loudly. But the sandhill, which we assumed to be a juvenile, continued to graze. The whooping cranes suddenly chased the sandhill with the male whooping crane grabbing a mouthful of tail feathers from the sandhill. The male cornered the sandhill at the back of the property and then walked away. The sandhill didn’t move for several minutes.
Two Whooping Cranes Warn a Sandhill Crane
The sandhill crane and whooping crane are the only 2 species of cranes in North America so to see both species in the same location was amazing. Seeing them together also revealed how much larger the whooping cranes are than the sandhill cranes.
A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.
