The ubiquitous Sandhill Crane

Harryb · August 11, 2005

Hi you'll,

One of the most common sights around here is the Sandhill Crane. They can be found on the road dividers, on our lawns, just about anywhere. Its not uncommon to have to stop your car on the local roads and to wait as the sandhills cross the road (they have the right of way of course).

They are gentle birds and are usually found in pairs as they mate for life. I ran into a couple in the wetlands last week.

in the summer their plummage is rust stained. Most of the year they are grey.

Osprey Whisperer · August 11, 2005

Nice job Harry. Pretty bird. They are common..eh? I've not seen a single one over here (Sarasota/Venice).

I think there are only a dozen birds over here. I keep shooting the same ones over and over and over. They are getting sick of me I think.

I'm wondering where all the rest of the birds are? Seems ever since the hurricanes from last season....most of the birds are gone from here. Who took my birds? Give 'em back.

Thanks for sharing. If I see one/two of these birds in the future..I'll know what I'm chasing.

Cheers

BMP

luckydog · August 11, 2005

Harry, excellent shots as per usual. First time i've seen one of these birds and they look very nice. The second shot is my fav with the mix of soft focus on the fore and background and the clarity of the crane you have created a nice effect. You nailed this one

Seamus · August 11, 2005

The sand cranes are great harry but please don't confuse me with words like

ubiquitous

It's too late to look for a dictionary

Shay.

bfjr · August 11, 2005

#3 for me, water reminds me I need a beer

on your CWA metering do you use small or large spot ??

Harryb · August 11, 2005

Bird Man Photographer wrote:

Nice job Harry. Pretty bird. They are common..eh? I've not seen a single one over here (Sarasota/Venice). I think there are only a dozen birds over here. I keep shooting the same ones over and over and over. They are getting sick of me I think.

I'm wondering where all the rest of the birds are? Seems ever since the hurricanes from last season....most of the birds are gone from here. Who took my birds? Give 'em back.

Thanks for sharing. If I see one/two of these birds in the future..I'll know what I'm chasing.

When I was shot at Sanibel on the Gulf side I found a few birds that we don't see too often on the east coast. Birds hang out in an area to either feed or to nest. The hurricanes could have destroyed their hangouts so some might have moved on. Recently on the west coast the water level went up too high in the feeding areas of the wood storks and thousands of nests were abandoned as they had to move to a area where they could feed.

ginger_55 · August 11, 2005

I thought you were going to say they could even be found in your bedroom/house.

leaving a bit late, nice shots of a very pretty bird. if he were rare we would all be drooling to find him. I read that our wood storks are just summer residents. They probably all go to Florida.

Like all the boats our bridges open for.

hope to see you out driving, hey, you could have your wife drive you around the wetlands and you could see what you could get out the window, just like old times.

Our birds are changing a bit, the nesting season for most purposes over, different birds are more prevalent. You will be glad to know that I rarely see the night heron anymore. Maybe he is headed to Florida, or maybe he is headed for somewhere the magnolia folks don't cut the vegetation back. I have noticed that happening.

g

Harryb · August 11, 2005

luckydog wrote:

Harry, excellent shots as per usual. First time i've seen one of these birds and they look very nice. The second shot is my fav with the mix of soft focus on the fore and background and the clarity of the crane you have created a nice effect. You nailed this one

Thank you. Being laid up gave me more time to post process my shots so I've been trying different stuff. Glad you liked the processing on that shot.

Harryb · August 12, 2005

Seamus wrote:

The sand cranes are great harry but please don't confuse me with words like

ubiquitous

It's too late to look for a dictionary

Shay.

Glad you liked the sandhills but I had to go with ubiguitous. Thet are too pretty for common.

jwear · August 12, 2005

very nice
I really like this bird but we never see them I am thinking Ben and i are going to have a driving trip to san diego and look around for some new captures ,if he gets over the challenge that is

Harryb · August 12, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

I thought you were going to say they could even be found in your bedroom/house.

leaving a bit late, nice shots of a very pretty bird. if he were rare we would all be drooling to find him. I read that our wood storks are just summer residents. They probably all go to Florida.

Like all the boats our bridges open for.

hope to see you out driving, hey, you could have your wife drive you around the wetlands and you could see what you could get out the window, just like old times.

Our birds are changing a bit, the nesting season for most purposes over, different birds are more prevalent. You will be glad to know that I rarely see the night heron anymore. Maybe he is headed to Florida, or maybe he is headed for somewhere the magnolia folks don't cut the vegetation back. I have noticed that happening.

g

Hey Ginger,

Glad you liked the shots and they have never been inside my house, my backyard yes, my house no.

Have a great trip.

Harryb · August 12, 2005

bfjr wrote:

#3 for me, water reminds me I need a beer
on your CWA metering do you use small or large spot ??

Hey Ben,

Glad you liked it. To be honest about the CWA metering, it was the first time I shot with the D2H after it came back from the Nikon service center. I was so anxious to shoot with it that I forget to check the settings. They had changed all of my mine and set it back to the defeault settings. I didn't know I was using CWA until I got back home.

Gale · August 12, 2005

Sandhills
Hi Harry,
I sure am glad you said what color the sandhills are in summer. I really thought my color was wayyyyyyyyyy off.

Nice images and you know I love the Little Zebra ducklings. Looks like she has lost a few. To bad.

Take it easy.
See ya soon.

gus · August 12, 2005

Harry whilst im a fully fledged canonite...your shots always make me wonder if i should have bought into nikon. That colour is fantastic !

Gus

Harryb · August 12, 2005

jwear wrote:

I really like this bird but we never see them I am thinking Ben and i are going to have a driving trip to san diego and look around for some new captures ,if he gets over the challenge that is

Thanks Jeff. If you want to see a sandhill come one over to Florida and I'll get you a personal intro.

jwear · August 12, 2005

Harryb wrote:

Thanks Jeff. If you want to see a sandhill come one over to Florida and I'll get you a personal intro.

if you do not show up at zion then i am going to come out to fla and get you

D

Harryb · August 12, 2005

Gale wrote:

Hi Harry,
I sure am glad you said what color the sandhills are in summer. I really thought my color was wayyyyyyyyyy off.

Nice images and you know I love the Little Zebra ducklings. Looks like she has lost a few. To bad.

Take it easy.
See ya soon.

Hey Gale,

Its amazing when you see how those birds change througout the year. The juveniles also have different coloring.

Harryb · August 13, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Harry whilst im a fully fledged canonite...your shots always make me wonder if i should have bought into nikon. That colour is fantastic !

Gus

Hey Gus,

Thank you for the complement, In the end its not what camera we shoot with but how we use the light that makes or breaks our shots.

The ubiquitous Sandhill Crane

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