I’d never given any thought to how big birds take a bath. They can’t just splash in a puddle or roll against wet leaves like I’ve seen smaller birds do. Well I found out last week in the heat. My friend and I stopped at a local pond to do some birdwatching, and I immediately saw a very large bird splashing around about 10 feet from the shoreline. I thought it was a heron, but when I looked in the binoculars I saw a Sandhill Crane.
I didn’t know how close we could get before spooking him, so we inched our way along. He let us stand on the path right in front of him while he continued to bath and preen and dry off. The whole affair took about 10 minutes.
Sandhill Cranes stand about 4 feet tall and have a wingspan of over 6 feet!
