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The Babe is Born!
That’s right! We are now the witnesses (and I am the helicopter grandmother) of a brand new, bright golden, baby sandhill crane! I can’t tell you how excited I was when I realized that both parents were hovering around the nest most of the day yesterday, and then suddenly—voila!—there was the baby!
I’ve never followed the nesting of sandhill cranes before, and it was quite a delightful experience. We looked out every day, several times per day, to see who was on nesting duties. Sometimes, during the day, I would hear Papa Crane calling out in his ear-splitting voice, watching him stand next to the nest, calling Mama Crane to get her butt over there so he could get something to eat. Sometimes she showed up right away; sometimes she didn’t. (I don’t know if she was outside of earshot or if she was hanging out with the girls.)
About halfway through the nesting period, we got some heavy rains, and as often happens, the pond rose higher and threatened the nest. Both Mama and Papa collaborated on making a new nest farther up the bank, assuring that the egg would be protected.
I also did some research on the number of eggs they lay, and it turns out that only one egg might be laid. I’d rather think they ended up with one baby and it was normal, rather than assume that a hungry alligator ate the other one for breakfast.
Meanwhile, in the light of the late afternoon, I was pretty sure there was a baby in sight, but I couldn’t see it with the naked eye. When I got out my binoculars, there was that little fluff ball, waving its wings, just as cute as could be. This morning, with the sun shining on its golden feathers, I could see it plainly across the pond. Mama and Papa stayed close, demonstrating how to find breakfast and offering it an occasional nibble.
Can you tell how excited I am?? I don’t expect them to stay near the nest very long. The lawn mower fellows put up stakes and a ribbon to mark off the area so that they didn’t run over the nest. But they are not very protected. Sandhill cranes do revisit their old nest areas to build for the next year, but since this spot was not very secluded, I don’t know whether I’ll see them again. I sure hope I do.
I love being a helicopter grandmother.
Published in Culture
Congrats on your grand crane baby! Get pics.
As Andrew suggested, we now expect pictures.
I’m working on it!
Mama and Papa Barn Swallow raised a total of 15 babies just last year, in the nest outside/above my front door, where I put up a little shelf to help. But I enjoyed seeing every one of them. And they’ve started again this year! Previous photos at https://ricochet.com/1274593/the-eggs-that-will-never-hatch/
Pics please. [posted before I saw earlier request]
When we first moved to our house, there was a farmer’s field behind it. That was one of the reasons we bought the house as it gave us the vista of having some acreage without the price tag. The sandhill cranes would come in to Corpus every year and march around the field searching for food. We always knew they had arrived first by hearing their fairly distinctive call. Sadly, we no longer get to see this as the farmer finally sold his field to developers but I still know they have arrived because I can hear that call from the slough down by the water as it drifts over expanding suburbia.
They do have a very distinctive call!
Update on photos. My husband has a Canon EOS Digital something or other that he bought years ago, and we haven’t used it in years. We figured out how to put it on the tripod, and I tried to take some photos. Naturally the chick is still so small (from across the pond) that it’s hard to pick out from the grasses. And cranes can be very aggressive, so I don’t want to go around the pond and get closer to Mama and Papa. If we can figure out how to get the photos from the camera to the computer, and then try to enlarge them, we may have success! Or not.
I would put optical zoom on the camera first. Digital zoom reduces image quality.
That’s wonderful. I loved your previous post about them nesting and it’s just great to read it was all a success.
Thanks! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed the unfolding story, Bill.
What he said. 😊👍
Wait until the new one is an adolescent. Then we’ll see how enthusiastic you are. :-)
The previous picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. I guess the photo took up all my allowed space. These Sandhill cranes had two babies
Lucky you! I’m losing hope that I’ll get close enough to capture them. My husband can’t get the camera to work. Now if they’d come to this side of the pond, (cranes have come by in the past), we’ll catch ’em!
I’ll do better next time!
Great picture, but where’s the baby?
If you are curious about how we finally got the above-pictures, my husband found a card at Amazon that allowed him to transfer the photos from the camera and then transfer them to his computer (after which he sent them to me). There’ll be more to see when the chick gets bigger. His name is Oswald, by the way.
For those of you who are still hangin’ in for reports, I apologize for the delay. We thought the family had flown the coop, so to speak, and we didn’t see them for several days. Then they showed up again! Apparently they wander far and wide. One evening I saw Oswald nestled on Mama’s back, protected by her feathers. So darn cute!
Anyway, I was able to approach them on my walk this morning. I think Papa was growling at me, but I didn’t go too close.
Ty for the update.
And what a cute lil guy.
Just adorable! Although he’s not growing as fast as I thought he would.
I’ve started hearing tiny chirping from the Barn Swallow nest too. They had a total of 15 just last year, I wonder how they’ll do this time? It can’t be as many, they got a later start this year. In the past they’ve started as early as March.
And Torty-Mama’s babies will be 4 weeks old on Saturday.