{"id":10703,"date":"2026-03-27T13:15:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T20:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/?p=10703"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:15:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T20:15:04","slug":"monte-vista-nwr-2026-dance-of-the-cranes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/27\/monte-vista-nwr-2026-dance-of-the-cranes\/","title":{"rendered":"Monte Vista NWR, 2026 \u2014 Dance Of The Cranes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3341-0009-Sandhill-Crane-Dance-No-1-Monte-Vista\"
Sandhill Crane Dance No 1, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"3341-0053-Sandhill-Crane-Dance-No-2-Monte-Vista\"
Sandhill Crane Dance No 2, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"3341-0061-Sandhill-Crane-Dance-No-3-Monte-Vista\"
Sandhill Crane Dance No 3, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While this dance is taking place, several cranes standing nearby, often calling out.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3341-0042-Sandhill-Cranes-Calling-No-1-Monte-Vista\"
Sandhill Cranes Calling No 1, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Here is another crane image.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3341-0093-Sandhill-Cranes-Calling-No-2-Monte-Vista\"
Sandhill Cranes Calling No 2, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"3341-0440-Sandhill-Cranes-Taking-Flight-Monte-Vista\"
Sandhill Cranes Taking Flight, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2085,30,2091,428,2090,1360,425,2089,2029,831],"class_list":{"0":"post-10703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general","7":"tag-calling","8":"tag-cranes","9":"tag-dancing","10":"tag-feeding","11":"tag-flock","12":"tag-monte-vista","13":"tag-sandhill-cranes","14":"tag-spooked","15":"tag-taking-flight","16":"tag-wildlife-refuge"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMatQ-2MD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10703"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10711,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10703\/revisions\/10711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}