Last year I heard about some sandhill cranes nesting in our neighborhood. I had a lot of fun photographing them and watching the chicks grow. If you’re interested you can read the old posts — see The Crane Wife and Family (5/11/12), Crane Update (5/25/12), and Crane Update 2 (6/12/12). This year I was very happy to discover that they’re back again. Although I don’t know for sure, I assume that this is the same pair that nested here last year.
I first spotted them this year on 4/22/13 (correction). At that time the female on the nest never stood up while I was there. The male was feeding on the other side of the pond. The same was true on 4/30/13. When I visited on 5/4/13 I was lucky to be there when the female finally stood up revealing two eggs. She moved them around with her bill and then sat back down. That bird had a lot more patience than I could even imagine.
I returned five more times during the following week. Each time one bird was on the nest while the other was elsewhere in the pond feeding. On a couple of occasions the feeding bird would return to the nest and trade places with the sitting bird. Sometimes the sitting bird would stand for a while and move the eggs around. Finally, when I visited on 5/12/13 — Mothers Day — I spotted both adults together by the nest, one sitting and one standing. When I got close and began to watch through my telephoto lens I spotted a small chick waddling around the nest.
Although I certainly wouldn’t say the chick was agile, for a newborn it moved around surprisingly well. It would occasionally stumble and stick out its wings in an attempt to regain its balance. Sometimes it regained its balance and sometimes it fell over. It was quite comical to watch. When the sitting bird stood I spotted a second chick, a little smaller, maybe younger. So, with luck I should have more opportunities to watch these young birds grow.