~sandhillcranechick~'s photostream

On the way to my parents' house last week, as we came to a stop at this intersection,
I saw a school bus coming down the road towards us. Now this probably wouldn't
seem like much to anyone else, but to me it had great significance. I'm SO glad I had
my camera with me because I was able to snap this quick picture of the bus just
as it was passing by the spot where I saw my very first pair of Sandhill Cranes, from
my bus window, 20 years ago.... That little hill you see behind the bus is where the
biketrail crosses the road, and just off to the right, beyond the treeline, there's a field
that a pair of Sandhill Cranes still call home. I can only speculate that it's the same
pair of cranes, but it's entirely possible and I believe they are. My nickname for them
is the Trailblazers, because they were one of the very first pairs to settle into this
area (or I should say, BACK into this area) after a time when Sandhill Cranes were
nearly lost from the state of Wisconsin, and because their territory includes a
section of the Glacial-Drumlin State Trail.

I only wrote the title and I'm already crying....

I was VERY shocked and sad this week when The Bakies returned from their nesting
"hiatus" without any babies. I haven't seen much of them the past few weeks, but
I was expecting them to re-emerge from the marsh any day now with some new little
ones and had been keeping a close eye out for them all week. I thought I saw them
a couple nights ago. They were on top of a hill with the sun setting behind them, so all
I could see was their silhouettes, but I was SURE I recognized The Sentinel.... until
they flew off.... Then I didn't know WHAT to think! On the one hand, I was so darn sure
that was The Sentinel! On the other hand, I just couldn't believe they wouldn't have
ANY babies! The Bakies have hatched and fledged 2 chicks every year for as long as
I've known them! I even started to wonder if it WAS their babies from last year....
(That's the only other explaination I could think of, how that one crane could LOOK so
much like The Sentinel, but NOT be him.)

I went back the next day to try and find them and was shocked to see them together,
in a place where I usually only see The Sentinel mudding his feathers at the start
of the season, right before nesting. (That's what he was doing too.) I knew it wasn't a
good sign.... I walked right over by them and had a good, close look. That's when
I knew for sure, there were NO babies. I expect to see this kind of thing every year --
it's a sad but true fact that baby Sandhill Cranes have a low survival rate -- I just
never expected it to happen to my Bakies! =o(

This picture is from that day. That's The Sentinel in front (that piece of grass you see
in his beak, he was using like a paintbrush, rubbing mud over his feathers with it --
the fact that he was mudding his feathers made me wonder if they might re-nest.... )
and of course that's Mrs. Bakie peeking in from behind him.