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Sandhill Crane End Of Week 11

Sandhill Crane
On a soggy day when they stayed near home, Tiedeman's Pond,
the juvenile does a survey for other activity.

Sandhill Crane
Both of the longest toes on the juvenile
have white toenails. Will they stay that way?
Sandhill Crane
The feet of one of the adults.
Or will they eventually turn black like these?
Sandhill Crane
Heading for a mossy log platform at the edge of
the pond, they herd Mallards before them.

Sandhill Crane
The juvenile does a combination show-off and
stretch with its wings to the adult male.
Sandhill Crane
Bigger display, but not right at the male.  A
certain feel of confrontation has crept into the displays.

Sandhill Crane
The male ignores this as it continues
on to the log island covered with short grass.
Sandhill Crane
The juvenile stretches, flaps and displays to
no one in particular, or maybe the indifferent Mallards.
Sandhill Crane
All three choose spots in order of arrival. Female on the
left, juvenile in the middle, and the male on the right.
Sandhill Crane
They settle into preening and stretching, which will
take about half an hour before completing that round.
Sandhill Crane
Both adults are heavily molting, removing
bales of feathers with each preening episode.
Sandhill Crane
Not only that, the feathers stick to the
bills when they're wet from the rain.
Sandhill Crane
Time for a bit of a stretch for the male.
Sandhill Crane
Whenever an adult flares its wings, the juvenile has
to follow suit. Sometimes the other adult does too.
Sandhill Crane
So the juvenile directs its own display toward its mother.
Apparent body size changes remarkably depending on posture.
Sandhill Crane
Sharing the attitude with the adult male.
Sandhill Crane
For a few minutes everyone ignores everyone else
while the preening and contortions gets serious.
Sandhill Crane
Tight quarters make for difficult stretching, but both adult
male and juvenile do simultaneous leg-under-wing stretches.
Sandhill Crane
A non-directed stretch.
Sandhill Crane
Not understanding molting, the juvenile believes everything
in the adult's bill is food, which of course is his to take.
Sandhill Crane
Not food, so another bit of flapping will have to do.
Sandhill Crane
Balancing is hard, so the bill-to-the-ground
pose has to be modified.
Sandhill Crane
A last flap by the female adult as the juvenile
and male adult look out over the pond.
Sandhill Crane
The male hunkers down in preparation for a take-off.
Sandhill Crane
Though surprised, the juvenile and female adult follow as
the male beats across to where their original nest remains.
Sandhill Crane
The male adult drops yet another feather as the juvenile
and female adult veer to the right at the juvenile's lead.
Sandhill Crane
Everyone makes mutual corrections so that
they land close to one another in the far cattails.
Another day in their life.
© Michael Bailey All Rights Reserved; Not for reproduction.  No photograph
from this blog may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means whatsover.

2 comments:

  1. Sigh. Off they go. What a lovely sequence. Thank you, Mike.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. By the end of September, they have been disappearing a few days at a time, reappearing briefly, then off again.

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