Willows and Sandhill Cranes

The lost camera has been found -- it's been riding around in the back of my car for the past week.  Who knew?  Oh, I'm just glad it's back and I don't have to trot around the place looking for it anymore.



Yesterday was spent clearing the willow thickets alongside the water canal that runs from our solar  well to the pond.  I planted these willows from naked little sticks that I stuck in the mud five years ago.  They have, to put it mildly, thrived mightily.  Now we've got willows popping up all over the area, throwing shoots everywhere and sending roots to clog the water outlet and drainpipe to the pond.  It's a struggle to keep up with their rampant growth, but the birds love these thickets and it's a tiny, but very welcome, microclimate of cool green in the heat of our scorching Copperopolis summers. 

It's amazing how many willow branches can be pruned from such a small area.  I was at it pretty much all day long -- and still didn't finish.

It was a good day though -- it felt wonderful to be outside working. Arby, the dear boy, was right there, helping.







But the absolute, very best part was the intermittent passing of the northward migrating Sandhill Cranes overhead.  From time to time, all through the day, I'd hear their musical gargling calls from overhead as I worked.  I'd stop and scan the skies and would eventually spot the flock, ever so tiny in the sky.  They look like this...

Today I read up on them.  I was amazed to learn that our birds, the Greater Sandhill Crane, stand at 5 feet tall.  These birds that look so small in the air are almost as tall as I am.  

Close up, they look like this:

 This picture is obviously one that I "borrowed" from the net.  All I've ever seen of them is the lovely wavering lines they form as they pass over our place. 

But the part that brings tears to my eyes is their calling, calling, calling to each other as they fly. 

They mate for life.