It was such an unusual sight that I ran over to the neighbors and sent then scurrying to their back deck to see: Sandhill cranes walking like regents not ten feet from the back of our condos.  That’s the closest I’ve ever been to one of these regal birds who wear cardinals’ caps and walk as thought they were attendants at the installation of a new pope.

I was certain that it was an aberration that would likely not happen again.  But to my delight, they have been hanging around the nearby country club—even walking next to fairways seeming to ignore the golfers who stop and gawk at the unusual sight.  Then yesterday I saw them on my walk to work.  As I stalked them with my camera, they calmly walked ahead of me too dignified to acknowledge my presence. Michigan is at the eastern edge of the summer nesting zone of this wonderful bird, and it certainly seems that they are both multiplying and becoming more friendly.

Usually we see them a good hundred yards or more off the road at the far edge of farm fields.  My most enjoyable sighting was some fifteen years ago near West Yellowstone where our group was able to watch their fascinating courting antics—which also look as though they were choreographed by cathedral bishops. When they call, however, their dignity takes a beating.  It’s a hoarse graawwwwwk that you typically hear descending from the sky during migration and has the uncanny capacity to make you believe they are just overhead.  But more times than not, I have been unable to pick out the flock, sometimes called a “swoop,” because the gray of their underparts blends in with the high clouds.  But when you do catch sight of them, so high they look tiny, you stand transfixed as they swirl and soar on the thermals that can carry them from Florida to Northern Canada in the spring.

I always feel blessed by these wildlife epiphanies that continue to add to my wonder in God’s great creation.

See some YouTube videos at these sites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLtMlOcvXMg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifjcghhfm7c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgvwgI51DGU

See you outdoors!

Dean