Jared Fisher posted video in his eBird checklist. The bird was in the field on Deep Landing Road across from New Enterprise Court. During the length of his video, the crane is constantly picking at the ground and appears to be swallowing. That field was a soy bean field. The field mentioned below was corn. Probably lots of grain didn't make it into the combine should keep it happy for a while!
Here's Jared's video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JAxzKX1KTYA
Tyler Bell
<jtylerbell...>
California, Maryland
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From: jugbayjs <JugBayJS...>
To: <mdbirding...>
Cc: MD- SMAS <md-smas...>; James Tyler Bell <jtylerbell...>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 10:44 AM
Subject: [MDBirding] Re: Sandhill Crane, Huntingtown, 12/9, odd behavior?
I had a stroke of good fortune and was able to do some logistical gymnastics and return to the location yesterday to look again. It was serendipitous since my two 10 year olds were with me and got to see the bird also. We had a very brief (~ two minutes) but close view. We did not stay long, it was close to the road and I didn't want to disturb it or the homeowner, although no one was around when we were there. There was a small pull-off area on the opposite side of the road where you could safely view it. This was my kid's first crane ever, and they were wide-eyed at how big and odd it was. And beautiful. What a thrill!
It was at the same location reported earlier by Bill et. al. It was on the west side of the road in the private residential yard, foraging on the north edge of the yard in the leaf litter.
I thought the bird's behavior was interesting to note. At first it was moving slowly and searched around the leave litter in the wood margin. We saw it grab something once but couldn't tell what it was, it swallowed it too quickly. Then we saw it approach an empty clear beverage container (~16oz) that was about half covered in the leaves, and obviously looking at it carefully. I was curious what it was looking at, and then the bird picked up the bottle by very deftly grabbing a piece of the rim, and tossed it a short distance. It stared at the bottle a moment, and then looked back where the bottle had been. I thought it was cleverly looking under the bottle for a worm or something. But then it went back over to the bottle, looked at it again, and repeatedly and slowly began to jab at it!
I couldn't tell if it was playing with it, or simply trying to figure out what it was and if it was edible. Or both. My kids found this behavior very funny. Based on other accounts I read where it was picking at inedible things in the same area, I wonder if it is simply not very good at finding food (yet) and if it is getting enough food to eat. Hope it does okay this winter...
Cheers!
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD
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