sand hill crane | Life on a Colorado Farm

The city of Delta is the winter home to many Canadian Geese,

They are thick along the Gunnison River’s banks

and in the waters of the Confluence Lake.

One thing I have noticed, very few of the geese are coming out to our fields, (they used to), but now with the Sand Hill Cranes here, it seems the geese are staying ‘in town’ and letting the cranes be the country birds. 🙂

Along with the Canada Geese are lots of Mallard Ducks, of which I wasn’t able to get a photo of

And a Bald Eagle.

The Bald Eagle hunts along these banks, looking for the ducks…just the right size for a swoop and kill….yummm lunch!

Terry and I haven’t seen the Eagle in action, but people who live and work along the river has seen the Eagle making a very swift dive and hauling off a duck.

I think, if I were a duck I would look for a different place to spend some time. Trying to hide in with geese is just NOT working!

For the geese this is just right…no hunting in town! HA! HA!

Linda

I’m back. Slept off and on yesterday and even slept in really late this morning. I got up at 6:30, with everyone else up and doing stuff.

I feel good.

I think I just got really tired from doing our things here and then running down to our oldest daughter’s place (only 2 miles away) to feed her fire and watch over her animals. She only heats with a wood stove so I had to be extremely diligent to keep the fire going so her pipes wouldn’t freeze all through the day and night.

She is back home now so everything will mellow out until our other daughter and her family heads to Nebraska for Thanksgiving on Wednesday. They heat with wood also, but they have a backup propane system. I will just have all their animals to take care of, which won’t be as exhausting.

Terry and I and the dogs all went around the place yesterday checking on the fences. It’s getting close to pheasant hunting season, which means people will cut, break down, and destroy fences to get to the birds. Everything is posted, not because we are against hunters, but because we are against property damage. It works most of the time.

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These lovely birds are back. I tell them all of the time they are most welcome to land on our place…we are a no hunting zone. Although, I don’t think there is a Sand-hill Crane season I know there is a Canada Goose season, of which they will be safe here!

Linda