Mom and colt at water's edge
A sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) parent and offspring approach a pond for a drink. They mostly forage on land, jabbing the earth in a quest for invertebrate prey (and dislodging lots of divots on golf courses) but periodically go down to water to drink. Another turf-based hunter, a white ibis, rests nearby, undisturbed by the larger birds. This is the smaller of two adults that have been shepherding two colts around the lawns that border a Sarasota shopping mall. Few prairies are left near cities on the Florida peninsula -- but there is no end of mega-residential developments and gated communities with names like "Sandhill Preserve." Sandhill cranes from the Gulf Coast migrate north into the western US and Canada to breed, often staging immense transitory aggregations in places like the braided bed of the Platte River in Nebraska. The disjunct Florida population is mostly nonmigratory (year-round residents), The species is rare in the northeastern states, but isolated pairs are now breeding in places like New Hampshire, perhaps due to vagrants from further west that are pushing the species range eastward. In Sarasota, it isn't uncommon to see cranes methodically working the lawns that border homes or even busy parkways.
Potter Park drive, Sarasota (30 March, 2022)
Mom and colt at water's edge
A sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) parent and offspring approach a pond for a drink. They mostly forage on land, jabbing the earth in a quest for invertebrate prey (and dislodging lots of divots on golf courses) but periodically go down to water to drink. Another turf-based hunter, a white ibis, rests nearby, undisturbed by the larger birds. This is the smaller of two adults that have been shepherding two colts around the lawns that border a Sarasota shopping mall. Few prairies are left near cities on the Florida peninsula -- but there is no end of mega-residential developments and gated communities with names like "Sandhill Preserve." Sandhill cranes from the Gulf Coast migrate north into the western US and Canada to breed, often staging immense transitory aggregations in places like the braided bed of the Platte River in Nebraska. The disjunct Florida population is mostly nonmigratory (year-round residents), The species is rare in the northeastern states, but isolated pairs are now breeding in places like New Hampshire, perhaps due to vagrants from further west that are pushing the species range eastward. In Sarasota, it isn't uncommon to see cranes methodically working the lawns that border homes or even busy parkways.
Potter Park drive, Sarasota (30 March, 2022)