I was in the garden with my morning coffee on my early walk-about looking for signs of spring when the snow geese flew over in waves, one vee formation after the other, hundreds of them, their honking announcing their coming, their white wings glistening. As they neared the mountains they banked into a turn and the whole mass of flying creatures looked like a ball of light, lit up in the early morning reflection of the sun. They circled higher only to disappear in some trick of light and then they were gone. The snow geese stop only for a short rest in the farmers fields around the valley before they take off again on their long trip north. Out early in the garden treated me to a rare sight.
Sandhill cranes also migrate north but some of them stay in our refuge. From the sound of them this morning, calling from all corners, they seem to have all arrived. We have been waiting to welcome back our special pair that nest just below our bluff but there is still no sign of them. For at least five years they have been coming into our garden. They would do there unique hopping and bowing mating dance then stand at the edge of the bluff and sing out across the refuge before taking off in a graceful glide. Then for a while we would only see one until one day the pair would arrive with their red-feathered chicks. They would walk up our trail from the refuge a good 300 feet or more beneath the bluff and we would have the summer to watch them grow. They loved munching on our strawberries and honeyberries and we were happy to share with them.
Last year did not go well for them. They began arriving with two chicks early in the summer but after some weeks went by they only had one. Then late in the summer they came alone, their single remaining chick also missing. Cranes are too big for an eagle or osprey or hawk so it must have been a fox that got them.I shouldn’t begrudge them not returning if it isn’t a safe place for a nest but I do miss them. Our loss seems to be our neighbors gain. He sent photos of a pair hanging out at his house about a mile away. He calls them his movable lawn ornaments. I made him promise to let us know if they show up with chicks.