Sandhill Crane colts

Some of the Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) chicks (scientifically 'colts') are growing up. Some have disappeared. Only one colt survived with the pair that lives where Lake Theresa meets Lake Louise. I can almost always see them 5-6:00 pm foraging in the very shallow water or in the swamp grasses adjacent to the lake. The colts are never far from one or both of the parents.



The pair that were nesting behind the lake house disappeared while we were away. Then last week a new pair (the same pair?) built a nest in exactly the same spot. It could be offspring from the original cranes returned from years past. I doubt it is the family that I blogged about in March that had one small colt before they disappeared.



Their nesting site is a terrible location if only because it is under constant threat by humans because the lake is virtually dry this spring and so the site is easily accessible by humans. In a normal year there would be 6-7 feet of water and the nest would be floating in the tall swamp grass.

While every access to the lake is clearly marked with notice that it is illegal to pilot motorized vehicles on the lakebed and to harm the wildlife those warnings are ignored, daily this spring. Several small children have gas-powered, all-terrain vehicles on which they regularly tear across the lakebed.

Below: Because the cranes all look so similar I cannot tell if this is the same pair from early March or a new pair nesting in the same spot. They built the nest last weekend and now are exhibiting behavior associated with protecting eggs. I have not tried to get a better close-up to see if there are eggs on the nest.



Below: I was playing around with colorizing the images and came up with this kind of stylized look at the swamp. There's almost always at least one snowy egret (left; Egretta thula) and several white ibis (right; Eudocimus albus) around the Sandhill Crane's little island nest. Here I made some of the reeds look purple and the bird's are over-colorized.

Click on any of these images for a larger view. Right-click or drag the image to copy.