rattle calls <\/a>roll over the landscape in a truly wild place simply thrills me to pieces.\u00a0 This bird is performing for its apparent mate…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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![\"sandhill](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/sandhill-crane-5544-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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\u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nwho is out of frame to the right.<\/p>\n
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![\"sandhill](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/sandhill-crane-5550-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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\u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0A looser crop reveals both birds.<\/p>\n
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![\"sandhill](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/sandhill-crane-5489-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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\u00a0\u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nHere’s a closer look at the pair (notice the larger size of the male).\u00a0 Adult Sandhill Crane plumage is an ashy slate gray but it becomes stained through the application of soil (which provides camouflage) and the oxidation of iron compounds in that soil.\u00a0 Sometimes the resulting color is a stunning\u00a0cinnamon-rufous.\u00a0 By this time of year (September) the cranes in the valley have lost most of that color but…<\/p>\n
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![\"sandhill](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/sandhill-crane-9472-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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\u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nwhen they arrive in the springtime their staining is pretty dramatic (this image was taken in the valley on\u00a0June 28, 2014).\u00a0 Notice that the staining goes only as far up on their neck as they can reach with their bill.<\/p>\n
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![\"pronghorn](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pronghorn-6219-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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\u00a0\u00a01\/1250, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nI thought I’d include this image (taken the day after most of the images presented here) to show the wildlife spectacles that are possible in the Centennial Valley.\u00a0 A large mixed\u00a0flock of Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes were feeding together\u00a0in the grasslands when a Pronghorn buck\u00a0sprinted toward them from the right.\u00a0 The birds weren’t bothered by the fast-approaching mammal until he stopped and turned around to face the other direction.\u00a0 That spooked the geese\u00a0and they all flew off but the cranes held their ground.\u00a0 Soon the Pronghorn continued his journey and the cranes went back to feeding peacefully.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
\u00a0Note:\u00a0 I’ve returned home much earlier than planned\u00a0from my camping trip to southwest Utah, largely\u00a0because of a lack of birds.\u00a0 More on that later.\u00a0 This post was\u00a0scheduled before I left.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I usually have opportunities to photograph Sandhill Cranes on my visits to Montana’s Centennial valley and this past trip in early September was no exception.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/sandhill-crane-5544-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-73i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"sandhill](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/sandhill-crane-5543-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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