What's that? A far-from-home sandhill crane

Bob Hume had a big surprise driving up Colley Avenue in Norfolk recently when he had to slow down to avoid hitting a large bird ambling across the street.

"I slowed to miss it and realized with a shock that I was staring at a sandhill crane," Hume wrote. "I had seen a couple before in south Florida, but I knew very well they are nowhere close to being local to this area."

Hume, who lives on Hanover Avenue, would have been hard-pressed to confuse this long-necked, long-legged bird with anything else. Stylish and graceful, sandhill cranes are almost 4 feet tall and sport a handsome red crown.

He stopped traffic to let the bird cross the street, then tried to take its photo with his cell phone.

Hume may have been among the first in town to spot the first sandhill crane ever reported in Norfolk. David Clark, president of the Cape Henry Audubon Society, said no record of a sandhill crane exists in the city.

The bird later made its presence well known by spending a day outside the WHRO television studios on Hampton Boulevard, said Wendy Hazel, WHRO's Education Office manager.

"At first, it wandered around the parking lot and then found a nice shady spot in the flower bed outside of the office of Bert Schmidt, our president and CEO," Hazel wrote in e-mail.

"WHRO staff started referring to the crane as either Big Bird or Ernie (since he seemed to want to be near Bert)!" she added.

Several members of the Cape Henry Audubon Society, including Clark, who lives nearby, came to see the bird and photograph it.

It appeared to be checking its image in Schmidt's office window, perhaps seeking a mate or hoping to drive off a possible competitor.

Most sandhill cranes migrate between Texas and New Mexico and Canada, but Norfolk's crane probably was one of a smaller group that breeds in the Great Lakes area and winters in Florida, Clark speculated. It may have flown off course on its migration back to its breeding grounds.

"Some wander a bit," Clark said. "A few hundred miles for a bird like a sandhill crane is no big deal."

Clark checked "Virginia's Birdlife: An Annotated Checklist," a publication of the Virginia Society of Ornithology, which notes that recorded sightings of sandhill cranes in Virginia over the years have been rare. Most sightings have been from the Eastern Shore, and three have been from the Back Bay area of Virginia Beach.

"It's nice to be able to add Norfolk to that list," Clark said.

And it also would have been nice for Clark to have been able to add the crane to his list of backyard birds, an opportunity he missed by just six blocks!

Later in the week, the crane was again spotted wandering on Colley Avenue, in danger of being hit by a car.

Volunteers from Wildlife Response captured it and took it to wildlife rehabilitator Lisa Barlow in Virginia Beach, who found the bird to be "underweight but very active and alert."

After a few days on a healthy diet, the crane was successfully released into the wild.

READERS' CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

A flying squirrel visits a North End sunflower seed feeder. Other squirrels also stop by. (Courtesy of Buddy Matthews)

Deadly fishing line  It has long been known that discarded fishing line takes a toll on ospreys and their young, but that’s not all it does. Susan Wenzel wrote to say that she pulled a dead robin out of a tree in her yard with a loop of fishing line around its neck. “So sad,” she wrote.

Sightings  “Last week, we were blessed with our first sighting of a male indigo bunting,” wrote Harry Ramsey in Foxfire. “It sure is nice to see a bird you have never seen before.”
Lynne Lindsay in Little Neck writes that she “had the most beautiful male indigo bunting (a first for her, too) feeding on our thistle sock today.”

-Seafair Narr saw an indigo bunting in her Lake Shores yard, “so bright and beautiful, you could not miss him – so incredible!”

-Carole Alderman spotted a bald eagle in a tree off Pinewood Road in the Linkhorn Park area.

-Bob McCausland reports that his resident kingbirds arrived in his Bayside yard and are working on their nest. “They went right to the area in my garden where they know they can find scraps of string and collected it all for the nest.”

Report from Zuni  Karin Swoveland in Zuni sends this report: A “strikingly blue” male indigo bunting visited her yard recently. Three pairs of summer tanagers are in residence, and hummingbirds are defending the feeders.
“The days are filled with the flute-like songs of the wood thrushes,” she wrote. “My favorites, the barred owls, have been very vocal. Their maniacal, screeching monkey calls lead to entertaining stories about what’s living in the woods!”

Flying squirrels  John and Jeanette Winsor, who live in College Park, sent photos of flying squirrels coming to their peanut feeder in the evening.
Buddy Matthews got a close-up of a flying squirrel , one of several that visit his sunflower seed feeders at the North End. “How cool is that?”

Fox pups  Gary Miller in Southern Woods was entertained recently for about 30 minutes by a fox and her pups “frolicking outside of the den. When she would emerge, the pups would try to get a piggyback ride on her.”

Hummingbirds?  Elaine Corning has been trying to get hummingbirds to visit her yard, in Windsor Oaks West. Does anyone in that neighborhood have luck with hummers?

Photo ops  John McLuckie sent a photo he took of an elegant mute swan  and a tiny gray gosling in Lake Meade in Suffolk.

- Marny Sanders, who lives off Sandbridge Road, sent a photo of the brown striped female red-breasted grosbeak and later one of a beautiful blue indigo bunting.

- Karen Beatty photographed an unusual spotted sandpiper along the canal behind her house in Hunt Club Forest.

- Michelle Gaggiotti said she had an “OMG” sighting, a black-throated blue warbler in her Newcastle yard.

- Georgann Okinsky sent a close-up of a big, brown polyphemus moth with its conspicuous eyespots that she took at Kempsville Elementary School.

- Paul Goodman sent a photo of a juvenile green heron in the marsh near Beach Garden Park, which he says is a great spot to see egrets, herons and other water birds.

- Jean Broughton was lucky enough to snap two of about eight rose-breasted grosbeaks that visited her Morgan’s Walke yard.

- Debbie Mangosing sent a photo of a Cooper’s hawk perched near her bird feeder in Windsor Woods. “He seems to think he is sitting at a buffet table,” she said.

UPLOAD YOUR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS SNAPSHOTS

What surprises or puzzles have you come across in nature, or do you have a tidbit of local lore? Send e-mail to barrow1@cox.net. Include name, neighborhood and city. If you have injured wildlife, call the Virginia Beach SPCA, (757) 427-0070.