Day 160
She knew something was up when I told her to get on her boots and get outside but after the fact, she wasn't sure if it was good or bad. After walking out to the backyard and seeing me further out point in the general direction of the white bird in the distance, she knew it was good.
Very good.
It was surreal to see a whooping crane in our backyard. As impressive as technology is, the phones in our camera just didn't do this bird justice. While we watched together, we thought about how we could try and get better photos of the bird, knowing this was an unexpected and uncommon experience.
Not having a quality camera of my own, I reached out to social media and requested anyone interested to stop on by. I was fortunate to have a friend stop by soon after to try and get closer and clearer photographs.
Of course, the bird didn’t cooperate. Moving in and out of the taller grass and occasionally flyin a short distance even further away, we were able to vet some pictures but nothing that we could really turn into something special.
Though we didn't get great photos, we enjoyed some great research. Seeing how this whooper was traveling with a bunch of sandhills, we read how many younger whoopers will migrate with other sandhills rather than stick to their own whooping crane groups. We also read that many of these birds like to follow similar migration patterns as they grow up so maybe, just maybe, we will see our whooping crane friend again.
Throughout that weekend, we watched our whooping crane from a distance. We were even more surprised when we saw that our whooping crane had a friend.
A second whooping crane.
We only saw them together for a short time but it was exciting nonetheless. They were present, but elusive. Stealthy, but available. Early morning and dusk were the most opportune times to see our flying friends in action.
These beautiful birds stayed a few days before continuing their journey. While their time at Craneview on Plainview was short, the memories they left us will last quite a long time.
