Sandhill Cranes put in a very spotty appearance here in Vermont, and so I was excited to read of two cranes having been sighted just a few miles from where I live. I got there early this morning and had no trouble locating them foraging near the road around a large puddle in a field as they were slowly making their way from the muddy back edge to the vegetation in front. I got out and used my car as a blind.
About the rusty discoloration of their plumage I found this in Birds of North America Online:
"Plumage becomes colored adventitiously from water, vegetation, and mud; additionally, Sandhill Cranes intentionally rub their plumage with soil, all of which causes variations in the plumage color ranging from drab-clay to cinnamon-rufous. Stained feathers occur anywhere below the mid-neck but are particularly apparent among the primary and secondary wing coverts and upper breast feathers." Authors Tacha, T. C., S. A. Nesbitt, and P. A. Voh
One showed darker discoloration than the other.
Sandhill Cranes are long-lived - up to 20 year - are monogamous, and stay together as a pair.
One of them ventured too close to a Red-winged Blackbird's nest and had to fend off an attack.
Stretching of wings but not taking off - just yet. I thought I had taken enough pics and had sat back down in the car, thus missing the dramatic end to the show as the pair took off, their clamor filling the the air with hoarse honking and loud swooshing of wings. They flew low and settled again at the far end of the field, well out of my lens' range.
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