
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.
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