Bob

A crane almost flew into our car this afternoon, which was quite interesting.

See quite a few of them as they hand out at a river near by, but first time one has been so close, in the wild.

cindyabs

Egrets abound here along with cranes. I love to watch cranes fly, they kind of lope through the air. Egrets are little stoopies.

Jerseygirl

I can tell the difference between an egret and heron or crane...but I don't know the difference between a heron and crane.

The garden of our house in the UK used to run down to a river. I used to love watching the cranes catch fish and eels.

Bob

http://dailyapple.blogspot.com/2011/...vs-cranes.html

I only know it's a crane, the one at the bottom of that page, because there's a plaque on the bridge across town with some info on cranes that wade through the river, other wise I wouldn't have a clue

Ozzidoc

No rattlers or coyotes? We also have skunks.

Hang on. What rainy weather???

gemmabl

We have blue jays and cardinals in our trees, and plenty of racoons and possums that go through our trash cans and leave a big mess.

And there's a rare bald eagle nest about a mile from our house.

WEBlue

Very true that you never see more than one British robin in the garden. Maybe that's why they seem so special. American robins are a dime a dozen & don't seem special at all.

I just looked up the classification of European robin. Seems it used to be known as a small thrush, but now is deemed to be an Old World Flycatcher. Haha! I think the songs both sing are very different in nature. . . .

WEBlue

The egret is a type of heron IIRC. The best way to tell herons & cranes apart is if you can see them fly. Herons fly with the neck hunched back & cranes stretch the neck out full-length forward.

Cranes always seem more graceful than herons to me, but I'm sure that varies a lot with the type.

Bob

The little one saw this yesterday, think it's a crane. It was near where we used to live and didn't see it fly, it just landed from above us.

cindyabs

or a heron.

Jerseygirl

Just seen a tiny bear cub dead in the middle of the road.

cindyabs

Something must've happened to Mama.

redglade

I think that's a Great Blue Heron.

Uncle Ebenezer

It is a pretty nice one, isn't it?

Bob

Cool, thanks

I just need to get a photo of the turtles that are around the river behind where we used to live in town and at the other end of the park, if only they would get close enough. Loads of those buggers, but pretty small.