Sandhills Cranes

 As we left Trish’s mother’s house and started our drive down the street, we saw a large long-legged bird crossing the street in the neighborhood.  From our distance it looked like a great blue heron.

As we drew closer, we saw that there were three more of these birds in a yard and soon the four of them were together.  Close up it did not look like a heron.  It was larger, about five feet tall, and brown instead of blue-gray.  It also had a red cap from its beak to the top of its head.

While Trish drove, I looked up the birds and discovered that they were Michigan Sandhill Cranes. The Sandhill Cranes usually live as couples and family groups and we were looking at two couples.

We were familiar with the Platte River Sandhill Cranes that migrate between southern Alaska and the Sandhill area around Kearney, Nebraska, but did not know if the Michigan sub-group.  This population summers all over Michigan, arriving in late February and early March, and winters in Florida starting in November each year.  As we drove on our way across Michigan, we saw other large groups in farm areas.

This experience illustrates why we enjoy driving everywhere rather than flying.  If we were flying, we would neither see nor even know about these magnificent birds.