Sandhill Cranes Yellowstone                 click to enlarge

Inadvertent Eavesdropping. You know the kind where you’re walking along and you suddenly hear a snippet of conversation from the people passing by, or you’re seated at a coffee shop and the next table is talking just loud enough that you cannot help but overhear. The little bit you do overhear is just tantalizing enough that you want to hear more, you want the rest of the story, but they move away or lower their voices and you can’t hear the finish.

It makes you want to run after them and ask how it turned out, or ask what did they say then, or even add something from what you would have said. This doesn’t make you a bad person. We’re conditioned by our surroundings to want to be included, after all if they’re saying it loud enough for you to hear, they must want you to participate, or at least give you enough information so that you’re not thinking about it all afternoon.

When seeing these two Sandhill cranes walking together apparently having one of those kind of conversations where you talk about everything and nothing, just letting the words roll over you, getting more comfort from the sounds than the content, you can image what they might be saying.

“Yeah I landed in the corn field next to him and all of sudden he’s all like, what are you doing here, don’t be following me around. Remember what I told you the last time…”

“I’m sure she’s sorry for going to that party. I warned her those birds were no good, now she’s laying eggs all over the place and hasn’t a clue who the …..”

“That damn Ray Everett, he let Cleda get hooked on the that weird grain they’re raising over at that research place and now she hasn’t been watching the kids and she let them fool around at the edge of the pond and that coyote came along and before you could say….”

” I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately, I can’t remember how to get back to the refuge and yesterday I landed at the…”

“You can’t be serious. You’re going to be laying more eggs? We haven’t gotten the last batch out of the nest yet. We can’t afford….”

“Yeah then he showed up molting with half his feathers gone and wanted to…”

” I saw a couple of the those two-legged things back behind some bushes and they must have been having a hell of a fight because they had torn each others clothes half  off and one was ….”

“I am sick to death of this back and forth, back and forth, why don’t we find a place and just stay….”

“It’s nice  today isn’t it? I just love it when the suns out and the winds not blowing. I could stay here for…..”

“Is that guy listening to us? I’m going to go over there and shove my beak up….”

All right folks, time to head back to the truck. I’ve got places to be and I’ve got to see if whats-her-face is still willing to….”