"A sudden blow: the great wings beating... W.B. Yeats -Leda and the Swan
Sometimes I'm fishing and the sandhill crane male will decide to come and dance. It's like he suddenly has all this pent up energy and has to release it or he'll explode into a thousand puzzle pieces of gray and red. He jumps up and extends his vast expanse of wing then draws them in, fanning the breeze with his magic moves.
It's always funny to watch. The draw was the big pile of stuff I had raked out of the lake and when the crane saw it, he had to stand in it and act like he was taming one million deadly snakes. He stomps on the pile and gracefully reaches down and grabs loose strands of the lake weed shaking them till he is convinced they have succumbed to his will.
The baby had it's second outting today. They swam over to land in late morning and stayed over all day till about 4pm when they swam back to their nest. When I am fishing, the baby is right in view, sticking close to his mother. He's much more active each day. It looks so soft, I would love to pet it, but there would be no way the parents would consent to that! The papa would dance that beak of his right in my face. So guess I am just as happy to see him up close and they give me lots of visitation and photo rights, so I am very happy for that...
