Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Florida Sandhill Cranes

 
 
Today I looked out of our dinning room patio doors to see this sight.  A Florida Sandhill Crane.
Not wishing to frighten the bird I took a few photos through the glass (and also the screening of the patio), so unfortunately the pictures are not very good.
In the dark photo below I took the picture from another window and you can see how the bird towers above the top of our patio table, which is the dark mass in front of the crane. 
 They are big birds and this one was with a mate, probably a female as she seemed to be busy preening for the camera. 
Now that she has all her feathers in place she poses and looks directly at the camera. 
Here's a few facts about our Sandhill Cranes:
 
Males and females look alike, males are larger than the females.
Height 2.6 to 3.9 feet (80 to 120 cm)
Average weight males 10.1 lb (4.57 kg) females 8.9 lb (4.02 kg)
Wing span 5.4 to 6.9 feet (1.65 to 2.1 m)
 
For years now I've been hoping that Santa will bring me a new camera, one that I could capture decent photos of the wildlife that frequent our rural area. But each Christmas all I get is a lump of coal. Guess I need to start being nicer and a lot less naughty.
Later in the day the Sandhill couple decided to visit our neighbor's yard, perhaps they were expecting to visit with the Canadian Geese who've been away for awhile now . . . We think they went to visit relatives in Canada for the Summer. 
Since this is a far as the zoom on my Mickey Mouse camera will get me (and I have cropped the photos as close as I could before they got too grainy)  I  found a photo online that allows one permission to use its images freely.  The photo below is a magnificent one of a Sandhill Crane and its chick.  The little ones are so adorable. :)
 
 
Photo from the files of Wikimedia Commons
 
The Photographer is Dawn Huczek
 

7 comments:

  1. Very cool! It's so hard to get good pics of birds in the yard without scaring them away. We have a finch sock which gets covered 20+ birds at a time with these little yellow finches, but I can never get close enough to get a photo worth any merit.

    How lovely to have them just wandering around like that!

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  2. Wow, what an awesome sight! Lucky you. I love bird watching, we have nothing like those cranes in the Midwest, but every now and then I catch a hawk trying to snatch up one of the little birds at my bird feeders. I hope you get the camera you want for Christmas this year!
    Valerie
    Everyday Inspired

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  3. That is so cool to have cranes in your yard! I had no idea they were that big. Every spring we get a duck couple for a few days. They're camera shy though!
    Oh, and you need to be a good girl if you want Santa to bring you a camera!! :)

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  4. Anna, I can't believe you actually captured the little baby one! She is such a cutie. They are absolutely beautiful.

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  5. Unfortunately the photo was not taken by me - I wish it had been as I'd love to have a camera that would take such lovely nature shots.

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  6. I think I can imagine what's the feeling of looking out of the window and seeing wildlife... but I'm not sure - I see only pigeons and sparrows and hear the magpies :) Once I saw a fox crossing a pretty busy highway, though... You live in a beautiful area and I like it when you tell us these stories!

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