More Sandhill Cranes

Last year I wrote about the Sandhill Cranes on Manitoulin Island in this post. This year they were around in great numbers again and we saw and heard them frequently in the fields around the camp. I saw a pair of young birds for the first time as they walked down the gravel road ahead of me one evening. An adult bird was off to the side keeping an eye on them.

Watchful adult a short distance away from the young birds below

With all the rain we have had this summer, the vegetation in the fields is much higher and it was hard to see the birds unless they were in a freshly mowed hayfield. There were many deer about in the open this year, even in the mid-afternoon. We saw a group of cranes and deer in a field close to the road. I have yet to see a Sandhill Crane in the water.

Juvenile Sandhill Cranes

We don't have many large birds like these (other than Great Blue Herons and the rarely seen Great Egrets) in Ontario. Manitoulin Island is a nesting place for many birds we see only in the winter or during migration in southern Ontario. The Mergansers and other diving ducks, Bald Eagles, and Cranes raise their young in this relatively safe and quiet place. And other birds such as Cardinals and House Finches never venture this far north.

I wonder what I would find another 360 km further north from the island in the James Bay Frontier?