Chortling

Thousands of Sandhill Cranes winter in a county near us.  It’s a thrill when they fly in groups over our house on the way to this temporary home – the sound of their call is unmistakable.  Varying terms are used to describe the sound:  bugling, trumpeting, rattling, croaking, but I like the word chortling.  These birds seem to be so happy that a muffled laugh fits.

We went to see some of these wonders yesterday.  The flock we saw numbered in the hundreds, but they were accompanied by thousands, yes, thousands, of blackbirds.  The vision of the groups in flight was enchanting!

The cranes look gawky in some cases.  When they fly about in small groups over short distances, they are funny with their wings and long legs all akimbo.  In serious flight, up high for long distance traveling, they are elegant.  They tuck their legs neatly behind them for streamlined flight and they fly in a v-formation.

And the blackbirds were so abundant that their flights about the field created a murmuration.  Well, I thought of it as a murmuration.  That term is by definition applied to starlings, not blackbirds.  But the image of the huge numbers of blackbirds twisting and swirling in some sort of shape shifting cloud was mesmerizing to me.

The skies were blue, the fields of brown and green stretched on for acres and acres.  It was a glorious day to be out in nature.  

The Sandhill Cranes were more than 200 yards from our vantage point, but Jim’s camera setup could “reach” them. 

I did get some passable shots with my little Sony. In all cases, if you enlarge the image, you can appreciate more detail.

At another stop on this outing, I had fun photographing cows.  More on that later.

I didn’t think to take a quilt along for a photo shoot – our days at home have ruined my sense of preparation for a drive about.  But the day certainly provided inspiration for future quilts.  

By the way, these Sandhill Cranes are huge birds.  Here is a photo of some walking by me a few years ago near Melbourne, Florida.  They are comfortable with humans here and you can get an idea of their size relative to me.