It was weird to see the family casually walking down the trail together. Just like a normal family out for a morning walk.
After strolling a short distance, they stopped and started looking for bugs.
Junior was finding bugs on his own but still getting bugs from the parents.
Strolling across the trail, he looks so grown up.
They started cruising down the trail again. I had to keep getting up and running farther back so I could fit them in with my zoom lens. All of a sudden, Junior started to run and flap.
He was practicing his take offs.
It was funny to watch him do his little burst of practice flying. He did it twice while walking down the trail.
A few seconds later, it was back to finding bugs.
And getting bugs from Mom.
They started strolling down the trail again so I got up and walked around the rest of the park.
Usually I get to Circle B Bar Reserve and think it’s going to take me all morning to find something specific I’m looking for or not at all. I got lucky on this morning. As soon as I walked out of the parking lot and a little ways down the trail I saw them walking towards me. This sandhill crane family only had one baby. I’m not sure if this is the family that started with two and lost one. I had also heard another couple only had one baby so this could be that family as well. I didn’t see another family with two that day but they could be somewhere else in the park. It was such a treat to spend a half hour sitting on the trail and watching this family go about their daily lives. Junior got really excited when he started flapping. By now he’s probably flying. It would be a great thing to see him getting that first lift off but my time getting out there is limited to Saturday mornings so I’m sure I’ll miss it. Maybe one day I can see a sandhill crane taking his first flight.
Check out more birds at Paying Ready Attention for 
Adorable images Dina! I think about those sandhill cranes often. 🙂
You’ve captured some fabulous images of an utterly charming episode. Thank you for sharing – made my day!
absolutely precious!
Oh that’s just SO cute!
Great family portrait!! Boom & gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
Amazing photos of this beautiful family and that youngster is so cute! That practice takeoff was priceless!
Lovely shots of the Crane famely!
Fabulous images of the family out for a stroll.
OH my GOODness, Dina, if this isn’t the cutest darn collection of family photos ever. I love them! Who could have ever imagined that a crane could be so adorable when semi-fledged? His parents must just want to hug him.
K
A great series of photos. Wonderful to see the three birds together like that and of course the juvenile is so cute!
Beautiful images Dina, the baby crane is so cute.
Dina, adorable shots of the baby crane! It is so cute!
Great captures of the whole family! Nice seeing the little one in action.
Great set of pictures – its a real ugly duckling of a bird (even though its a crane)!
The curlew post is great as well!
Cheers and thanks for linking to WBW
Stewart M – Melbourne
I LOVE this!!! Those legs!!! Oh my gosh, is that the awkward age or what!
Love the shots of the flying exercises.
I love the Sandhill Cranes and these are wonderful pictures of a family. Our SandHills are just nesting … haven’t spotted any babies yet. They don’t stay close to the roads of paths when they have babies so I would probably never get a chance at shots like this … I hope you do get a first flight picture, that would be so awesome.
Andrea @ From The Sol