I spent the afternoon with a sandhill crane family close to home right here in Madison! This nesting pair of sandhill cranes had two eggs hatch in the past couple of days. The young cranes are already off the nest and learning to dig up dinner in the mud on the shore of a pond. Thanks Melissa for the heads up on the great photo opportunity!
I usually don’t mind giving away the locations of my subjects, but I’m not going to name where this small pond is because of it’s urban location. They need their privacy as they raise their young.
I love the moment in this photo, but wish the light was better. I guess you can’t always have everything. The two adult sandhill cranes were digging up small worms out of the mud and sharing it with young teaching them how to hunt at only a day or two old. They have no time to waste, this fall they will be flying south!
The siblings rivalry is already started, this looks like they are being cute and friendly in a still photo, but they are already establishing the pecking order of the family.
The babies (or colts) where so cute I almost overlooked the fact that I had the opportunity for some great closeups of the adults. I drove all the way to Nebraska in March to photograph cranes and never got this close to one!
The parents wouldn’t always just hand the worms over to the babies, they would tease them with it a bit, then put it back in the mud to instill some hunting skills in them.
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