Cranes

Late last year there were a pair of sandhill cranes wandering around on the driving range at a local country club. An errant golf ball struck the female in the head and she was killed right there. Golf course staff scooped up the dead bird, carted her off to another spot on the property and dug a hole, the male crane fussing and harassing them the whole way. Shooing the male bird away, the workers placed the dead female in the hole and covered it up. The male bird lingered at this spot the rest of the day and was gone the next morning.


Recently, for a couple of months, this lone male crane

has been showing up at the country club at the same time every night. Around 9:30 in the evening he emerges through a gap in a hedge, crosses the parking lot, and stands in this very spot for hours. Around 5:30 in the morning he walks across a little grassy area in the parking lot, around the building, and off onto the first fairway where he vanishes into the darkness. At 9:30 the following evening, he's back.


Employees speculate he's the same bird from the driving range, perhaps hoping his mate will return.