boxofdelights: (Default)
boxofdelights ([personal profile] boxofdelights) wrote2024-03-14 01:23 am

sandhill cranes

So I've been back from the hospital for two weeks. I still have a sore throat, but I'm still testing negative for Covid. And getting more energetic every day! I was outside with my hands in the soil the other day, and my husband said, "That's the happiest I've seen you in two weeks!"

small purple irises with yellow stripes and feathery white markings down the middle of each petal

Yesterday, about 5:30, I heard the sandhill cranes flying north. My husband came into the back yard as I was hobbling up the steps to the back door. "Do you hear that? Do you hear that?" I called to him. I stuck my head inside and yelled, "Phoebe! Come out and listen!" Phoebe came out and started laughing with joy. She has seen thousands of the sandhill cranes overwintering in New Mexico, and this was just a small group, maybe sixty, flying overhead for a few moments, but it was a delight. They don't sound like anything else.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/sounds

a gray-haired woman on the couch with two dogs. both dogs' heads are in her lap
lunabee34: (Default)

[personal profile] lunabee34 2024-03-14 10:26 am (UTC)(link)
You look so content with the doggos, and they look overjoyed to be sitting with you.

<3
misbegotten: A skull wearing a crown with text "Uneasy lies the head" (Default)

[personal profile] misbegotten 2024-03-14 12:28 pm (UTC)(link)
So glad you're home! That is a gorgeous iris.
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2024-03-14 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you're home again, and much happier. All things worth celebrating.
bibliofile: Fan & papers in a stack (from my own photo) (Default)

[personal profile] bibliofile 2024-03-14 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you're at home and recovering! With support from people and your adoring dogs.

I don't think I've ever seen that many sandhill cranes together, much less heard them. So cool.
cimorene: cartoony drawing of a woman's head in profile giving dubious side-eye (Default)

[personal profile] cimorene 2024-03-14 03:20 pm (UTC)(link)
What sweeties! It's so nice to be surrounded by one's animal family members.
jesse_the_k: White cumulonimbus outlined by orange sunset rays in deep blue sky (clouds crown o glory)

Hooray!

[personal profile] jesse_the_k 2024-03-14 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)

We've got scores of Sandhills living in city parks (since our parks often include marshes). There's also a pair that lives in the playground equipment next to a nearby golf course.

I think they sounds like manual garage-door springs.

So glad you're healing up.

pameladean: (Default)

[personal profile] pameladean 2024-03-14 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Awwww, everybody looks so happy in the photo. Matilda looks as if she could not be ill-behaved if she tried.

I've only once seen a large group of cranes. We were driving home from a state park where we'd heard them conversing loudly, but seen none, and suddenly realized that a field of solar panels was full of some large bird poking around. It was twilight, but eventually we could see that they were sandhill cranes. Something very tasty was apparently under the solar panels.

P.