Sandhill Cranes

The local sandhill crane couple

This is a blog post I have been meaning to write ever since the sandhill cranes started migrating through Homer back in May, but I never had my camera (aka my iPhone) on me when I saw them.  What I really wanted was to get a video of the flocks of 50-100 cranes that stalk up our road or descend on open fields or lawns next to it.  But the masses of cranes left in the spring and just a few are left hanging around.

We have 2 cranes that frequent our neighborhood these days.  And every evening I'll hear their distinctive honk as they fly over, though usually when I look up it is a group of 4 or 5 cranes honking by.  It reminds me of when I was a child in Wisconsin and a great blue heron flew over our house each evening.  The day wasn't complete unless we saw it. 

While out walking the other day we ran into a momma moose with a baby that wouldn't budge from the roadside, so we turned and walked a different way and ran into another momma moose with a baby the other direction, also chomping merrily and unwilling to move.  So we walked down our road and saw these cranes, which was a relief because we were feeling pretty hemmed in on our walk that day.  We were worried we'd run into yet another stubborn moose and not be able get enough walk in!  I'm not sure why, but I never think of taking pictures of moose when I see them--probably because I see them so often.  I'll try to fix that and give my blog readers some moose pictures!