The Common Crane (L. Grus grus)
Aah, the Common Crane is not so common for us up in the North!
Spring is here ... we think... we hope.. .
It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I decided to go to town taking the longer route through the countryside - a slow drive instead of the main motorway. Spring is hesitating... its palette is still of sombre browns and beige, the resplendent greens are way off yet but there are signs everywhere you look....The colts foot dot the ditches, the crocuses in the shaded corners light up the entire garden, the snowdrops are every where bringing such joy to the disarrayed winter soul...
While driving I was delighted to hear the sudden cacophonous honk-honk and the whirr-rr of huge wings above me.... Cranes! I thought. I stopped on the side of the road... (its a country road and almost no traffic...). And sure enough! There above me against the blue sky was a flock of cranes on their way to the breeding lake called HornborgarLake, a few kms from here.... every year we get nearly 10 to 12 000 cranes (unbelievable!) at the lake, en route to Russia and northern Sweden.
The cranes are smart! They go away to warmer places (these chaps have been in Spain since September!!) and return to their cold northern homes when the temperatures are friendlier! Its a delight seeing them in various fields as one drives back and forth doing ones errands ...
And so I stopped ...and took a few photos as you can see...
And then just as I started the car to drive on... two of them decided to cross the road...And very smartly did so while I waited, the engine idling...
At the edge of the forest were two deer lazily munching the first of the fresh green grass....
Signing off for now!
C.S
(Cresat Scientia)
