Flight

The Sandhill Cranes are back on Paynes Prairie for the winter, in their hundreds. They are right out in the bogs and hidden a good bit of the time by the tall grasses and rushes, but on a lovely day like today, they enjoy riding the winds. There is a lot of courting going on, which involves running about, flapping their wings and throwing tufts of grass in the air. They also do a rather alarming dance, in which they face each other and jump in the air, with much flapping and kicking, all the time making great croaking noises: Keerroooo, krrroak, kerrrooo... Worth seeing large.