128 On the trail of vanishing birds 



vantage of a 20-foot tower only 150 feet away, plus a 19. 5x spotting 

 scope, it would have been the greatest kind of luck to have seen 

 her at all. I thought of our long hours and days of searching for 

 the nesting grounds of the wild pairs in the North, and wondered 

 how closely we might have passed them by without spotting them! 

 When away from the immediate proximity of the nest the non- 

 setting member of the pair may be quite conspicuous, but not 

 necessarily so. It depends on whether this bird is resting, feeding, 

 or defending the nesting territory. 



The nest-relief ceremony is not spectacular, as with colonial 

 species like the egrets or herons. I should say it is simply matter- 

 of-fact. When relief was delayed or overdue, the brooding bird 

 stood on the nest or even walked off, leaving the eggs momentarily 

 unattended. In such case the other bird was usually close at hand, 

 and immediately walked up and took over. As a rule, the incu- 

 bating and free periods seemed to be arranged in an orderly and 

 easily managed sequence, so that the business of hatching the 

 eggs is an amazingly efficient one. Although, generally speaking, 

 the incubation phase may be a weary and even boring routine, it 

 is not without drama and an occasional flare of emotion. One 

 evening at dusk (7:10 P.M.), the male was on the eggs, when the 

 female was seen to raise her wings suddenly and jab violently at 

 some object hidden from view in the cattails. The male sat like 

 a graven image. A few minutes passed and then }o sounded an 

 alarm note, startlingly loud on the quiet evening air, and with 

 wings held partly open, ran toward something in back of the 

 nest. Pete remained immobile. In another moment we saw a 

 white-tailed deer retreating rapidly, with Josephine in hot pursuit. 

 Pete stayed perfectly quiet throughout the encounter. This doe 

 had given birth to twin fawns in the shelter of a small, dry, wooded 

 clump close by, and the cranes were kept busy running her off 

 throughout their tenure. 



As a general thing the birds were quiet through the incubation 

 period, calling only when deer invaded their nesting area, or when 

 large birds flew over or otherwise disturbed them. Once they 

 whooped loud and challenging protests at an army bomber flying 

 over, even though it was quite high. More often than not it was 



