[DeanFL]

The recent Sandhill Crane posting triggered this nice memory:

About 2 years ago a very touching thing happened to Phyllis and me. I lived in Leesburg, and she in Lake Mary FL.
(BTW we now have our new TV home in Gilchrist - I sold my Leesburg home in Dec, and her LM house is closing next month).

Her Lake Mary house is near some large ponds and we walked our dog Chip around them often. During one walk near a pond there we noticed that a single large Sandhill crane was about 20 feet away from us, then was walking very near, closing in about to 10 feet. That's very unusual as they are very timid around humans. Over the next few minutes he continued to follow while we walked, then about 5' away. I noticed that he had some sort of plastic on his beak - it was a small piece of plastic netting, like from a produce bag or such. I told Phyllis - I think he wants us to remove it. I slowly approached him and carefully reached toward his long beak (not wanting to be attacked...) I pinched the plastic netting and he pulled his beak out - it appeared to be attached only to the top beak part, so he was still able to eat.

We couldn't believe what just happened. We continued to walk Chip and the bird slowly moved away then took off across the pond. nice...

Well the very next day, we were walking in the same area and notice 4 Sandhill Cranes across the same pond - about 100' away. A few minutes later, one of them flew right to our spot, about 10' from us and stayed right there. Couldn't prove it, but to this day we believe it was the same guy coming over to say - 'Hey, Thanks'.

Phyllis surprised me a month later with a custom metal Sandhill Crane garden figure -ordered online from an artist. I glued the plastic netting on its beak and placed it in my backyard. It is now moved to our TV house, and we are considering putting it in our backyard here. Pic below.

Couldn't help but share this, what was a very heartwarming story, with our new TV friends,
Dean & Phyllis