Our resident pair of sandhill cranes are expecting; Mama just built herself a nest in our neighbor's horse pasture.
This species of bird has been around on the planet for about 2.5 million years, according to the fossil record.
I shot these pics on zoom from the car; one does not mess with sandhill cranes, as even when they're not nesting they can be very aggressive.
This is probably the third or forth brood this pair hatches; we've seen them before with youngsters a couple of times over the years.
Fortunately this pasture is fenced off to keep any gawkers from getting too close to Mama.
Her mate is also standing guard 24/7. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll get some pics of the babies. Final bit of trivia: sandhill crane babies are called colts, like horses. :)
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