Jul 8, 2011
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Jul 1, 2011
Sandhill cranes in Walworth County, WI
I stopped by a farmer's field a few years ago to watch Sandhill cranes doing their wonderful jumping-wingflapping-floating mating dance. If I only had my camera.
This time I did when I saw parent Sandhills escorting their offspring in Walworth County.
Sandhills are like some of us in that they can live to be 80, stick with the same mate for up to 30 years, and fly to Florida for the winter.
The WI Dept. of Natural resources says females lay one or two eggs. Chicks are born in 30 days and have fuzzy yellow-brown feathers. Born in May, they fly by July. Families feed together on seeds, tubers, grasshoppers, snails, frogs, snakes, birds and mice. Cranes can be a problem for farmers when they pull up sprouting corn in spring and eat large amounts of field grain in the fall.
Birders love Sandhills and count them as they come back from Florida. They look for a wingspan of up to 8 feet!