A dozen years ago my friend Carol Park took me to see the Sandhill Cranes at a park near Chelsea, Michigan. Some of her friends were ornithologists who liked sharing what they knew, and lugged spotting scopes the size of small cannons to the park so that everyone could see closeups of the star attractions in full migratory spate. I was smitten by the cranes, and spent a couple of hours lying on my back in the grass, watching them fly in and land on the marsh, listening to their music. I long to do that again.
People who live along Farrell Road have told me that the cranes are a regular feature of their farms in the spring and fall. I’ve heard them myself, and one day a pair flew right over the Writing Studio and Bait Shop, but I always miss the morning coffee bunch. Today was Babs’s day to be with the cranes. She writes, I found these Sandhill Cranes off Farrell Road this afternoon. There were five of them in a corn field. As I walked closer, they flew. And I thought they would run up to me.
Maybe if I go over there with my sleeping bag and spend a few days just watching . . .
Torch Lake Views 
Reggie
April 26, 2010
Watching cranes sounds so peaceful… I’d like to join you. Maybe we can have a little picnic in the field, inbetween all the activity of flying and landing.
Gerry
April 26, 2010
A woman after my own heart – there must be a picnic in here somewhere!
Reggie
April 26, 2010
Yes, there certainly must be. If it’s still chilly out, I’ll bring along a thermos of hot cocoa and some marshmallows and chocolate flakes to dunk in them. Oh dear… now I’m salivating. I’m on a two-week cleansing diet at the moment, so I’m feeling rather deprived of my usual chococcinos at the farm stall. There’s *no way* I’m making this deprivation permanent.
Gerry
April 26, 2010
This will be an interesting variation on the coffee-on-the-deck gathering.
P.j. grath
April 26, 2010
If only these elegant, graceful, perfect birds knew the effect they have on us!
Gerry
April 26, 2010
Maybe they do!
Fee
April 26, 2010
Oh, pretty birds.
I got really excited one year in Spain, when the flamingos flew overhead morning and night, just because we have nothing like them at home. Just easily pleased, that’s me.
Gerry
April 26, 2010
That extravagant pink plumage makes flamingos look as if they’re reflecting a sunset even at mid-morning. I’d be giddy to see them flying overhead morning and night. I don’t know that we’re so easily pleased, Fee. Think of all the trouble it must have been to design these birds just so.
Camilla
April 26, 2010
Wow, these photos are amazing!
Gerry
April 26, 2010
Thank you, Camilla. I am grateful to both Babs and the Sandhill Cranes for making an appearance in Torch Lake Views. Dress the place up a treat, don’t they?
Scott Thomas Photography
April 26, 2010
Gerry, you fulfilled this promise. Babs is an extension of your wonderful community. 🙂 I was told there were some in the wildlife refuge I visited earlier this month but I missed out.
Gerry
April 26, 2010
I’m going to find cranes to watch yet, but at least Babs has kept me honest!
California Dreamin
April 26, 2010
What great pictures of the Sandhill Cranes. I have seen a few at a distance, but Babs did a great job of capturing them up close and personnal.
In looking back at the previous post of the feathers, could they have come from one of the Cranes. They seem to have some yellow color to their feathers?
Gerry
April 26, 2010
You raise an interesting possibility. The cranes are basically a sort of buff color, with a red patch on their heads. They do a lot of preening, and if they’ve been in mud, their feathers take on the colors of the soil. The feathers at the Site of the Suspicious Happening seemed pristine. The yellow ones were bright and clear. Further investigation is warranted.
Katy
April 27, 2010
About five years ago we had a memorial service on Bay View Farm for a cousin, Barbara Edwards Fields…on cue, six sandhill cranes appeared. They were thusly painted into a mural on my bedroom wall by Jennifer Anway Edwards. She studied them for hours and, I believe, caught their essence in flight. Katy
Gerry
April 27, 2010
That would be a wonderful send-off–or perhaps welcome? It’s a splendid memory for Barbara’s family to cherish either way. Thank you for adding it to the community treasure trove.
Ed
April 29, 2010
There are also some by my Dad’s house on Crystal Springs Rd, outside of Alden.
Gerry
April 29, 2010
There are cranes all over the place and I can never find them. I hear them . . . but I guess they hear me too!