Sandhill Crane

What an afternoon outing I had with a friend on Monday! Not only did we see a Moose and a herd of Elk, but we were also thrilled to see this solitary Sandhill Crane north west of the city. We sat in the car and scanned the lake but saw nothing and were about to drive away when I suddenly spotted some movement amongst the bushes and dried grasses. Sure enough, it was exactly what we had hoped to find! It was far, far away, hidden by the bushes, but did come out into the open for a few brief moments. Though this is an 18x zoomed and heavily cropped image, I'm so happy to get any photo at all :) Thanks especially to my friend for driving and to Ron for telling me about these birds in the first place! This is the first Sandhill Crane I've seen in the wild, other than a couple that were flying so high a few years ago.

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