Things at the lake have been disappointing lately. Oh the lake looks better, or greener at least. With our daily thunderstorms we still have water out there, but not a lot. All spring it was dry and brown looking out there, but it seemed like every day I could sit out back with my camera and take pictures of lots of different birds who flocked there. Beautiful birds, with tired, brown weeds as the backdrop. I suppose I expected that this is how things would go on, but there are very few birds out there these days.
Cranes were plentiful on the lake, even after the family I was following had moved on. It seemed like I would hear them every day and look out to see one, or two, and even six one day. Lately as I drive through the neighborhood I see four adult cranes with one colt, and of course I have no way to know if any of them are from the family, but they do seem to like the same corner where I used to see the ones I was following. The last time I saw the colt who had been hurt was the day I took his picture with his wings spread, so I choose to think that he was well and grown enough to take care of himself. I still hope to see him again, and recognize the ‘ding’ in his ‘shoulder’.
Did I say there are very few birds out there? That’s not exactly true, I still see many American white ibis out there. I’ve taken lots of pictures of them but I was too distracted by the cranes to pay much attention to them. They are as beautiful as they are plentiful.