Photo Friday: Sandhill cranes stand guard at national cemetery in Holly, Michigan

I recently spotted these Sandhill Cranes at the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Michigan.

Most of these birds gather in a 75-mile stretch along the Platte River in Nebraska during their seasonal migrations, although it's not uncommon to see them here in the Detroit area.

I hadn't previously seen these huge birds, which stand about three foot tall, although Tim reports having seen them quite close up in the past when he spent some days photographing at the Kensington Metropark west of Detroit.

Here, they graze and quietly wander the grounds at the veterans' cemetery in Holly, about 50 miles north of Detroit. I liked the juxtaposition of the long-legged birds standing in front of a line of flags in front of the cemetery's office and visitor's center building.

Want to learn more about these beautiful birds? Check out On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of North America by Michael Forsberg.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Comments

[Sonja]

We have some beautiful big birds like this where we live but I think they're egrets. It's hard for me to distinguish between cranes, egrets and herons!

[Dominique King]

Sonja-
We've got egrets and herons (blue and green) here as well. These Sandhill cranes look much larger than those other birds to me, plus they have that scarlet patch on the top of their heads.