I haven’t been blogging as often as usual because we’ve been doing some massive construction on our house.  The builder didn’t properly seal a part of our roof when the house was built back in 2001.  This spring we discovered lots of wood rot in a second-story wall, and we ended up having the entire wall pulled out and rebuilt.  Needless to say, it’s been an adventure!  I haven’t touched my camera in weeks.  But as soon as the stucco was applied to our new wall, the neighborhood inspectors showed up to check it out…

It was a family of four Sandhill Cranes — two adults and two juveniles.  Note that the above photo was taken by Rich on his iPhone.  I loved how the wide-angle lens captures the inquiring look of the bird.  Rich said to point out that even an iPhone can take good pictures!

I grabbed my bigger camera and followed the cranes down to the pond, where they began feeding in a nice dirt pit.  It’s such fun to see a family of four.  So often one or both of the babies doesn’t survive the first few weeks of life.  I quietly told these parents that they were very good parents.  In response, they continued to feed their young ones!

Sandhill Cranes are a joy to be around.  They are very protective of their tiny babies, who grow to be almost as tall as their parents within a few short weeks.  But the family will stay together for almost a year.  Although the juveniles are fully capable of feeding themselves, the parents continue to offer tasty morsels at regular intervals.  The kids are willing to accept – after all, why look for your own food when Mom and Dad will do it for you? :)

If these juveniles aren’t yet flying, they are very close to doing so.  After their grub snack, they headed off down the road, and the juveniles started flapping their wings.  I half expected them to take off flying.  Maybe soon I will see them soaring over the house…hopefully they will let me take a picture or two! :)