I walk down March Rabbit Run trail and see two sandhill cranes feeding near the trail down in the marsh. There were already several photographers there watching the couple. At first glance you can’t see the babies since they were so small. They were hidden by the tall grass. Every once in a while a little baby head would pop up but they were still hard to see. I finally got a shot of both of them but they were pretty far away.

Eventually I headed down the trail to Wading Bird Way trail. I saw the other sandhill crane couple down in the marsh there as well. I could barely see the baby. At this point it was lunchtime and getting hot. I walked down the trail a little ways and  sat down a bench and started eating my banana.  A few minutes later I see the above flapping his wings and noticed the couple had moved on to the trail.

I stayed pretty far away for a while and watch them feeding along the trail. The baby seemed very relaxed but stayed close to the parents.

I sat down on the grass and watched them cross the trail to my side of the grass.

They kept moving closer to me.

The parent was feeding the baby.

They still kept moving closer to me. At that point I could see out of the corner of my eye two people on bikes had stopped behind me and were watching the cranes. Finally, I got up and walked farther back. One of the bikers started laughing and said “I thought that bird was going to walk into your lap.” All I could think of was having that beak coming at me.  At that point I decided to start heading back to my car. I’ll try to make it back there in a couple of weeks to see how much they’ve grown.