Friends, This Greater Sandhill Crane is tiptoeing through the meadows of Crex in search of food.   Their rust colored feathers are being replaced by their more formal gray of winter.  When the molting season is here, one can find many feathers along the road and lakes where the cranes are busy pulling out old feathers and growing new ones.  The red head and white cheek patch signify that this is an adult bird.  Soon they will be flying over every morning from their roost site and every evening into their roost site. They migrate to the Texas Gulf Coast and to Florida, mostly an eastern route  thru Jasper-Pulaski National Wildlife Refuge in Northern Indiana.  On the way they eat grains, mollusks, and any grasshoppers that might still be roaming about.  When they are here at Crex, they often gather in large groups to dance and call, celebrating the raising of the young.  They are quite the spectacle until the snow flies, then one day they are gone and we are sad, but we wait patiently (?) until they return in the spring.  til Tomorrow MJ