House of Feathers - Episode 1
I am going to do a series for you called House of Feathers - location - on the nest. Who needs Netflix when the Sandhill Cranes are on the nest? :). I hope this series will warm your hearts….
Episode 1
Each year I count the days as the time approaches for the possibility of success at the crane nest… It is always right around Mother’s Day. The week leading up to Mother’s Day was rain, rain and more rain so I did not go as soon as I normally would have. I finally went for sunrise on Saturday May 10th. It was just drizzling that morning… I hoofed it out there as fast as I could…. to find…. nothing! I thought… the nest must have flooded…. I walked to several locations to try and spot the cranes with absolutely no luck. I kept trying as the sun was fighting through the clouds and drizzle. Because the grasses are now higher than when they built the nest I now had to be looking right into the rising sun from the west side of the swamp, usually I am positioned on the north side but not now…
The sun was very welcome but it was very difficult looking right into the sun but I kept trying and trying… with no luck. I sadly picked up my gear and said to myself… hopefully next year. When I got to my car I emailed the owner of the property to give my sad report - no cranes and that I didn’t see the nest. I told her my guess was that it had flooded….
Once I was back home I received an email from her - she had just gone to the swamp and saw an adult on the nest!!! She did not see the partner. I thought to myself - how in the world did I miss such a big bird??? Well, I somehow did! I have replayed that morning a thousand times in my mind and I think I just must have looked from the wrong angles and with the lighting challenges I just missed! I had not been planning to go back to the nest that day but there was no way that now that I knew a crane was there that I would miss that opportunity. I also thought - the lighting will be so much better during the mid-late afternoon instead of the headache inducing glare of looking directly into the sun - so that will be a big bonus. .
So off I went again in the car for the 40 min drive back - arriving back at the swamp around 3pm. I was of course talking to myself the entire drive out there and decided I just needed to find a different spot to have a better chance to locate the crane. I decided I would try and use other trees as blinds and look from different angles that I had not done earlier. I made 3 different stops along the back edge of the swamp - looking and looking. I was still not seeing a crane until I moved to stand behind a different tree and I was scanning the swamp…. bingo!
I positioned myself along some trees and backed up against one tree and stood on its huge roots to get some more height to get a better angle - And after about 45 minutes … look who popped out from underneath the feathers! The owner had observed the nest the day before - there were no chicks that day so this little precious one is less than 24 hours old! I honestly still can’t believe how I went from thinking of a flooded nest and no nest to this spectacular sighting with this lighting… all in the same day…
Just as a reminder - both adult cranes share the responsibility at the nest and throughout the entire raising of the chicks. I honestly don’t know if this is dad or mom but they are equally devoted to their families and to each other.
About 45 minutes later looked who popped out from beneath the feathers! This sighting was just incredible to me…
I love how perfectly this shot shows us the size difference…
Now the little is tired and wanting to get back into mom or dad’s House of Feathers…
I just love that I was able to capture this …. just going to plow right into those feathers to get inside!
Darn, didn’t make it… they are always tumbling around - beyond adorable to see how they tumble…
How cute is that butt? Deciding to go around the other side now… I didn’t see the little one for a little while after this shot because it was walking/tumbling around…
Until this happened! I will never forget this….
A dream…
After all of that activity the little one was tired out… and as you can see the shadows are closing in around the nest as the sun is getting lower and lower - more than I could have ever hoped for….
Time for them both to rest -
All of a sudden it got very windy and woke them both up -
The little one is sure saying - I am hungry!
Or maybe just tired…
More tired than hungry -
I can’t tell you how excited I was throughout this entire afternoon to see and photograph the young one on the parent’s back - I have hoped for this opportunity since I started observing and photographing them in 2020.
I will end Episode 1 with this shot… beyond precious… Episode 2 will continue with this this same afternoon…
A dream…