Tonight I went over to the Lakeshore Nature Preserve to see the happenings at sunset and spotted two cranes near the mud flat on University Bay. I watched them walk away for a few minutes and they began a curious raising and lowering, tucking wings back then spreading them wide, and spinning in pirouettes. I realized that I was watching a sandhill crane mating display and it continued for a long time as they traveled farther and closer to me in the pool, spinning and strutting their way back and forth. This is the most beautiful thing I never saw before. I then walked around the 1918 Marsh, listening to redwings chat up a storm, and as I wrapped back around to the lakeside, a fiery sunset glowed behind a chorus of birds. I heard cranes sounding from the flat and went there to find four of them slowly moving together and trading off calls. I noticed that one in a pair makes the solid note, the other immediately bugles, and this repeats between ten and twenty times. Made me wonder if it's always a male-female synchronicity that produces the two part call. The two pairs kept wandering about until dusk and I turned for home with a chill. Spring gets more interesting each day.
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