Sandhill Crane update

After several days of disappointing searches for the Sandhill Crane family (Grus canadensis) that vanished on Monday, I spotted them late this afternoon coming out of the tall swamp grass on the berm of our nearly dry lake.



The colt was not nearly as animated as when I first saw them on Sunday, but she did stay close to her Mom and Dad who foraged along the edges of the tall grass.



Above: When the cranes heard humans they took a defensive back-to-back stance scanning the horizon for danger. They never saw me. I was about 1000 feet from their location. The man-made item between the cranes and their colt is a marker one of my neighbors used to mark the lake level when the water was much higher.



The little colt disappears in a sea of Hat Pins (or Flattened Pipewort; Eriocaulon compressum Lam.). From looking back at previous years posts on this and Phillip's Natural World II and Phillip's Natural World III blogs I can see that they have had their baby two months earlier than in previous years.



I spotted the cranes when the male ran out of the tall grass to inspect their nest (indicated above with an arrow). They've abandoned the nest because of kids trampling the area (see background). Normally they lay two eggs and have two colts per year. Often only one of the colts survives.

The other nest I'm following where Lake Theresa meets Lake Louise also has a single newborn colt and that family has also abandoned the nest due to human intervention.

In the image below you can see that the nest area behind our property was already in shallow water last May. . . today it is virtually dry and unfortunately kids have decided this is the place to play. . . despite my urging them -- forcefully -- to move on they've returned every day this week. The kids remind me of a pack of hungry raccoons. . . you disperse them and they return as soon as you turn your back.



I was happy I found the cranes again, but I do hope they stay out of the dry lake and away from the humans. They'll likely have a better chance of survival if they move on to a less populated area.

To see more images of the cranes from today go to: PHILLIP'S NATURAL WORLD II

To see what else I discovered in the dry lake go to: PHILLIP'S NATURAL WORLD III