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.

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