Second Encounter of the Frightening Kind

Yesterday I posted a photo of a Sandhill Crane family I saw on the church grounds. Today I was headed to the church again for a memorial service for a dear friend and fierce and faithful prayer warrior who  prayed for me while I was in Japan and after I got home to Florida. On the four lane divided road (dual carriage way) just north of the corner where you turn in to the parking lot (car park) I met, most likely, the same crane family. The difficulty was that as I approached, father crane decided to try CROSSING THE HIGHWAY!

I slowed to a stop, thankful there were no cars following me very closely. It took the bird a few moments to reassess his situation as he stood in front of my car.  The two chicks were on the curb thinking about joining him and mother was bringing up the rear. Fortunately he chose the route of returning to his family and getting out of the way of the traffic as several other cars approached.  (No time for a photo.)

I hope the experience has persuaded him that crossing the highway where there is no crosswalk (zebra crossing) is not advisable. Perhaps he was just turned around in his directions as there is a nature preserve in the direction they were coming from.  Who knows, it's a bird after all.

Florida residents become accustomed to seeing large birds in our everyday scenery. Wading birds like the crane, heron or ibis. We are very close to the Gulf Coast here so we often see gulls in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It's also not unusual to see vultures (just a little larger than Tokyo Crows) at the roadside taking care of some roadkill. I was helping chaperon a group of elementary school children on a visit to a wildlife sanctuary   when a third grade girl said, "Why do they have so many birds? Plain old birds , I thought they were supposed to have unusual animals here!"