PotD: Bird Sex!

The sandhill cranes were out this morning, and I thought I'd try to replicate this picture, only with Elphie sitting in the doorway.  Unfortunately for me, the grill is further on the patio than usual, and got in my picture attempts.  But while I had the camera out, the bird closest to me flapped her wings wide. I lifted the camera to my eye to get a picture of the wingspan. The other bird jumped on her back. I snapped the picture. The second bird dismounted.

The whole thing took less than 30 seconds.  Scott missed it completely, though to his credit he did hustle back over when I said, "umm...I think they're mating!"  I actually Googled 'sandhill crane mating' to make sure that's what I had seen.  Yep - that's definitely bird sex.

Actually, it's been a big "circle of life" 24 hours here in the neighborhood, though all out-of-order.  On my way home last night, I stopped at the dumpster and snapped a picture of the eagle nest, complete with one bird peeking out the top.

And then around sunset, we spotted a sandhill crane family out front.  The colt is in the middle:

At this point, I think I'm done with wildlife photography for the weekend. But we're planning on heading out to enjoy the beautiful weather today, so who knows what we'll see?