• Saturday-What'sUP June 29 - 05:52 pm

The first two photos were snapped by Brenda Leigh, in the Menominee area, showing a family of Sandhill Cranes on an outing. I had never seen a baby Sandhill before, so I found these quite interesting just for that reason alone. But the top photo especially caught my attention, because I thought it unusual to find these birds venturing so close to humans. If you look closely, inside the garage you can see there is someone standing next to the car, either watching the cranes or maybe keeping an eye on Brenda!

The bottom photo comes from Frederic W. Koski and shows the parental instinct of these birds defending their young. At first glance, you see the Redwing Blackbird making a pest of itself with a Sandhill Crane, but upon closer inspection, that tall grass is hiding a baby crane. That's one gutsy Redwing, to be challenging a bird that much bigger than itself.

Those are great pics!!! I've never seen a baby Sandhill either. Thanks for sharing Brenda. That redwing is probably defending its nest. I've been "swooped" by them before.

I thought the same thing Mary when I looked at these cranes...I have never seen a young one before. Usually they are flying or alone, standing in a wet area. I wonder what the young are called.

Ducks = Ducklings
Chickens = Chicks
Geese = Goslings
Gum = Chiclets
Cranes = ???

The Red Wings out my back door in Mn pester the devil out of the egrets on the pond. Are they looking for bugs on the bigger birds? Any bird experts out there?

Cranetts,???

Wonderful pics! I've never seen a "family" of sandhill cranes, so seeing these pics is neat. Thanks to both of you!

Well let's see, Alex....
Cranes = Manitowocs
Get it? :)

Grrrooaannnnnnn! You are all so sassy this morning :O>) chicklets and cranetts????????? But those ARE cool photos! Enjoying them much. Thanks folks.

We had an unusual critter sighting last week. A black bear was sighted & photographed just north of Savanna crossing the highway heading to Palisades State Park. It was sighted in Iowa across the Mississippi a few days earlier. Was spotted several places going further north into Wisconsin after that. So we are drawing tourists from quite a variety of locals to our lovely area. Chamber of Commerce is happy their promotions are working! Well for our part of the midwest it IS unusual.

Sandhill crane's young are called "colts".

Redwing blackbirds are very protective of their nests and will even dive bomb large humans with cameras.

Wouldn't the babies be called a Derrick or maybe a Jammer??
All jokes aside they are called COITS

Who comes up with these names for baby critters? How did they decide a baby crane is a colt???

It's shorter that Smitn & Wesson.

Rowdy-----You're a real pistol!!!!

Ohhh my -the humor on this site!!Anyway- nice pics- .I love the cranes. They look and sound almost prehistoric and are often seen and heard out here in Traprock.

Wouldn't it be nice if a pastor of a contemporary Christian church used some of the enlightening humor on today's Pasty Cam Notes in his sermon! Oh, there might be joy in the pews, at least for a few moments! Or, maybe it would be "for the birds". Hm-mm...(LOL)

Really great pictures! I can't believe those big birds were marching along in a neighborhood. I've always thought they were the most elusive creatures. Here on Drummond Island they're rarely seen--though we hear them now and then. We came upon a male doing a mating dance and I had my camera with me but I didn't dare get too close, for fear of scaring them off. The pictures are not the best, but I posted them on my blog here, anyway:
http://cabinandcamp.blogspot.com/2009/07/dance-of-cranes.html

Are they a common sight in the Western UP?