This is a continuation of a story I started yesterday about a sandhill crane family who lived at Floating Island Lake in Yellowstone. They spent their nights on the island in the middle of the lake. Every morning the parents flew and the babies swam to the backside of the lake to forage on land all day. The day after the second baby hatched we “camped out” at the lake to try to get photos of the babies. In the middle of the day the sun was out and it was quite warm, for Yellowstone. Not much was happening but I had my camera set up, and on, hoping to spot a baby. I looked off to the southwest corner of the lake and saw a black bear coming out of the trees and heading towards the road along the west side of the lake. I thought that was pretty neat so I followed the bear with my camera and took a few movie clips.
When it got to the northwest corner of the lake, close to the road, it turned and walked into the lake. It was a warm day and I figured he wanted to cool off a bit. But then he started swimming diagonally across the lake heading straight to the southeast corner were the sandhill family was with their two brand new chicks! I panicked! I love black bears but I love sandhills too and I didn’t want to watch this family become lunch.
There wasn’t anything we could do so we watched with dread. The bear swam the entire lake and casually got out on the backside. He shook some of the water off and looked around. He didn’t know the cranes were there, yet. When I realized he didn’t know they were there I thought he might just pass on through and the crane family would be safe.
But that is not what the male sandhill had in mind. He had watched as the bear swam the lake and got out on HIS side and he was mad.
About 30 seconds after the bear got out of the water he found himself facing an irate sandhill daddy. The crane opened up its wings and half ran and half flew straight at the bear. The bear was so startled he ran to a tree and climbed it. He didn’t stay up there long but when he came down he found the male crane at the bottom yelling and making threatening gestures.
The bear immediately high tailed it up the slope, but he didn’t get very far. The crane jumped up on a very large rock, and when the bear got close, he pounced off the rock towards the bear.
He missed as the bear ran to another tree and climbed it. When the bear came down from the second tree he looked rather sheepish. I heard him thinking “I can’t believe I keep running and climbing trees because of this bird!” The crane came at him again. But now the bear had had it. He ran off towards the east and we never saw him again. The crane meanwhile puffed himself up and went back to his family to brag about how brave he was.
Since that day I have heard from 2 other people that have seen a similar encounter between a black bear and sandhill cranes at Floating Island Lake, both with the same outcomes as we witnessed. I have now learned to never under estimate the ferocity of a mad sandhill crane!
The final chapter of the crane’s story will be posted tomorrow.
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Wow!! What an experience and wonderful photos. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you B.W.! It really was one of those once in a lifetime experience.
I too ready 2 before 1! What a Great story & wonderful photos! Daddy was Pissed! Too funny! Love it!
Daddy was pissed! I have to say it was so much fun to watch because it was so unexpected. Who would have thought the sandhill would not only win but scare the crap out of the bear?
Awesome story and photos. I love when the unexpected happens! Sandhills are just now migrating to here in Kentucky. It’s strange but they only go to the same few fields in this area every year so I have to plan a trip soon. Fun to watch their dancing in the spring.
Thank you Margie. They do that where we live in Texas too. The same fields every year. It will be interesting to see what happens this winter. They put the Keystone pipelines (yes there are 2) in less than a mile from our house early this year and destroyed a bunch of land doing it. It goes right through the middle of where the sandhills had dinner last year.
OMG, saw that photo of the bear getting yelled at by the sandhill and couldn’t help but read #2 before #1. This story just tickled me and had me laughing out loud. Thank you.
Deby if you had been there you would have had a heart attack as the bear swam towards the cranes. I just knew the 2 baby cranes would be a nice little snack for the bear. I cannot tell you how surprised i was to see what actually happened. It took everything I had to film it when all I really wanted to do was jump for joy.