Continuing with our visit to the National Wildlife Refuge. One behavior that is often seen with Sandhill Cranes is a “dance”. This appears to be a courting behavior where the cranes often jump into the air with wings spread. Here are three images from a sequence between some of the cranes.
While this dance is taking place, several cranes standing nearby, often calling out.
Here is another crane image.
While we we watching the cranes at one location during the afternoon, most of the cranes in the feeding area suddenly took flight. The air was filled by several hundreds of cranes. Maybe something must have spooked the cranes to trigger their response?
This happened two or three times during the afternoon. In a day prior to our visit, a wolf was observed in the Refuge. Perhaps one was observed when we were there? We could not find a wolf or even a coyote after the birds had flown.