Another animal on April Mountain

We have seen a lot of different animals around our house; moose, deer, racoons, chipmunks, fox, hawks, and quite a bit more.

This evening I was letting Jasper out onto the deck when I heard a very distinct call.  It took me a few calls to really believe what I was hearing.  A Sandhill Crane was somewhere up in our neighborhood.

I took a ton of pictures last May of a pair of cranes and their little colt.All of those were down in the swampy area where the cranes belong.  We live about 600 feet higher, up on a small mountain. There's no water and no swamp, just a bunch of scrub oaks.

Sure enough, there he was.

 It was hard to get nice shots between all the trees and my wobbly hands.  Hand holding a 500mm lens is a bit of a challenge.

 After calling over and over for about 30 minutes, he finally took off.

 I hope he found a much more suitable place to hang out.