Sandhill crane chick

[EricD]

[KimR]

It is always fun to see the Crane colts and I enjoyed your images. Thanks for sharing these.

I once got to help with a study on the predation of crane colts which I found interesting and fun too. We caught and radio collared them and then tracked them in the wild. Then when and if they stopped moving we would go find them to determine what happened. Ravens and mink seemed to be the predators most often involved. It was found that ravens were diminishing the crane colt production by raiding crane nests and eating the eggs, this was done by a study in which the raven numbers in the area were reduced and then the colt production came up. Then when the colt population was up and radio tracking was used it was often mink that took the colts. The mink being of the weasel family were killers and hoarders and when we would retrieve a colt body from a minks den there was more often then not lots of other bodies found there too, amphibians, ducks, birds, rodents and just about anything they could possibly sink their teeth into.

[earlybird]

Beautiful photos EricD. Lots of interesting wildlife in Flordia to capture.

KimR enjoyed your story.

[funzy5000]

i cant tell if that is ugly or cute hahaha. love the pictures as always eric!!!