A serious and thoughtful look into the life of the Sandhill Crane

Click the pics... Gently

Something a little psychedelic....oooooo I think I'm having flashbacks to Jefferson Airplane in the late 60s, I can just barely hear Grace slick singing White Rabbit.

Today I started getting ready for my mini-vacation. I still don't know what day I'm leaving, but it doesn't matter; I like to start packing up a little at a time and not do everything at the last minute because I tend to forget fewer things that way.

As I mentioned before, the weather is shaping up to be the high 60s, low 70s in Alamosa Colorado while I'm there, but night times will be in the low 20s. Since I'm not going to be anywhere near a town, the temperatures will probably be slightly lower than that. So I plan to be in "cold weather" camping mode and not fill up the little Bronco's water system; I'll carry gallon jugs of water, so I don't have to worry about my pipes freezing and breaking during the night when I turn off the heat.

Since I'm going after the Sandhill Cranes, I got to thinking that I shouldn't have to get up really early in the morning especially since I'm not particularly eager to get up before sunrise if I don't have to. And if it's going to be 20° outside, crawling out of my sleeping bag before the sun comes up is highly unlikely anyway.

I associated the sunrise pictures everyone takes of the Snow Geese at the Bosque Del Apache, New Mexico, with the photographs that I'm going to be taking of the Sandhill Cranes. But they're actually not the same at all.

The trouble everyone goes through to get the Snow Geese's sunrise pictures are only because tens of thousands of Snow Geese all lift off the water simultaneously when the sun comes up, making for a pretty spectacular sight. But I don't think the cranes do that, their spread out all over the San Luis Valley, so I might be only seeing 5 or 10 Cranes on the water where I will be. Anyway, I've decided there's not much point in me getting up before the sun rises. And it didn't take many internal discussions to convince myself of that.

From what I've read, the treacherous and highly unstable Sandhill cranes fly off about daybreak to nearby fields and spend all day eating, drinking, chasing women, and watching YouTube videos. Then near dusk, they come staggering back to a nearby Lake, too intoxicated to legally fly [ FWI ], where they pass out, only to wake up in the morning with a hangover and do it all over again.

I'm assuming the Cranes have adopted this lifestyle because Sandhill Cranes mate for life, a concept which will drive even a bird into a destructive lifestyle that can only lead to a early grave which is preferable to the alternative.

Serious Birders tell me that to get good pictures of birds, you have to spend years watching, studying, and understanding their habits and how they live. So I think that I should get some great pictures of the Cranes because I not only understand their life .... I've lived it.

                                  theboondork  

Old log cabin church.

Purple flowers.

My granddaughter on a skateboard.