Prompt Entry Four

The Florida Sandhill Crane

Grus canadensis pratensis

http://www.savingcranes.org/images/stories/audio/Sandhill_Crane_Guard_Call.wav

I adore Sandhill Cranes. I first noticed these graceful and awkward birds when I moved to Pasco County in Florida. It was the first time I lived in an agricultural area-- The first time I connected to natural Florida in the ten years I lived in the state-- The first time I saw the cranes. The 3-4 foot birds would gather together, stroll and feed in fields with their families. It was the most curious thing to me to see a bonded pair with one or two “kids” like a human family strolling through a park. Adult feathers of Sandhills are a washed-out slate grey, like the color of cedar shingled homes on a New England Coast. Juvenile cranes look like ginger, pot-bellied stuffed toys. They walk close to their parents and when they are sub-adults, before finding a mate, their plumage becomes an attractive mix of cinnamon and grey. At the time I would observe the Sandhills, I was always with my family, too. I was raising my son and daughter by myself, and the three of us were inseparable like the crane families. We would go for a walk down the long dirt road that led to our house. We’d see a crane family crossing the road, one behind the other. We would sit around the table for dinner, and we’d see the cranes drilling their beaks into the crop soil for their meal, mate and children drilling right along side. And just as I would call out to my curious son who would wander into the neighbor’s yard to grab an orange off of the trees or pet the calves, the Sandhill parents, too, sounded their trumpeting guard call through the air to alarm their family to stay near and warn predators. My children are older now, and we rarely are in threes. There is one Sandhill Crane that stands or sits, posing in the field by Lake Jovita. She seems to be there every day. Yesterday she stood in the grass in front of where I parked my car, as if she were waiting for me. I wonder if there were many solitary cranes those years when I noticed the families. Do I notice her now because of my own solitude?