Another Sandhill Crane

We went to Bear River Migratory Refuge to see Western Grebe and Avocet chicks — we didn’t see a single one. Instead, the highlight of the visit was another sighting of a Sandhill Crane chick, not once twice.

If that wasn’t ironical enough, the best pictures of the chick were taken by Leslie who was using the camera I just replaced and an older, less powerful lens. As it turned out, we sighted the cranes on Leslie’s side of the car, and I had my camera attached to the door mount, making it difficult, though not quite impossible to get a shot. By swinging the door open, I was able to get this shot.

The biggest problem was the high grass between us and the Cranes, which probably prevented them from being spooked but made focusing damn near impossible.

We circles a second time in the afternoon when we had switched sides in the car and we spotted the Cranes again, but this time they were further away.

Leslie shot a lot of shots of the parents and chicks; so, it was difficult to decide which shot a liked best, especially since all of them had technical faults. She fought the same grass I did but was able to catch them when they were less obscured.

Technically, this seems like the clearest shot,

but this was my favorite pose.

If you’re into irony, we probably saw more Avocets in this series of shots than we did anywhere else.

Pictures or no pictures, we both were excited by the sighting. It made the trip worthwhile just by itself.