Back in May, I posted an image of a sandhill crane that was one of two that had been born in the Spring out back. The two newbies are still in the neighborhood never far from the adults, but, as you can see, they have really grown in three months. The red crown doesn’t come in for the first year juveniles. The brownish feathers they were born with are transitioning to fresh grey feathers during the molt
in late summer.
Like many bird species, sometimes the kids bear no resemblance to the Mom. We started with about a dozen Black-bellied Whistling-duck ducklings out back and nature has reduced that to about 7. Nevertheless, I stumbled upon them last Sunday and spent some quality time with them, my Z9 with the Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens attached. A nice combination to capture the kids…..
The editors of American Cranes selected this image for the August cover. Walking down a narrow side street in NYC, the white tower crane stood out against the buildings on both sides of the street, drawing the eye to the subject of this month’s issue.
