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GREENVILLE, NC SANDHILL CRANE



I just returned from a week in Brazil (where Pat Lucchini & I were married), 
and a week in Cancun, Mexico where we spent our honeymoon.  What to my 
surprise did I hear about on my arrival back home to Greenville, NC Monday 
night?  There is a Sandhill Crane being seen 10 minutes away from where I 
live and 2 minutes from where I work in Greenville, NC.

So, on Tuesday (5/1/01) morning before work I headed over to the Bradford 
Creek golfcourse and Greenville Sewage Treatment plant.  I spent about 20 
minutes in these two locations unsuccessfully trying to find the crane.  Pat 
and I returned to the golfcourse Tuesday afternoon around 5:00pm and found 
the SANDHILL CRANE walking between the 10th and 18th hole fairways.  We had 
great looks.

We both returned to the golfcourse again yesterday (Wednesday 5/2/01) around 
5:00pm to try to take some photographs.  We spent some time walking the 
golfcourse, and sure enough we found the SANDHILL CRANE walking on the 8th 
hole fairway.  We approached the crane at a distance between 50-100 feet and 
the bird did not even pay attention to us.  Golfers were passing by it even 
closer.  We spoke to many golfers that said they were within a few feet of 
it.  I was a little skeptical at first.  To our amazement the bird actually 
started to approach us.  It came within 10 feet (yes I mean 10 feet).  It 
looked at us, made clucking noises and walked in a circle around us.  I 
obviously got great pictures, including some with each of us posing with the 
crane.  Amazing!

I have two hypothesis about this crane, but I am not leaning towards either 
one.

1) This is a migrating Florida "based" crane that spends it's winters on a 
golfcourse and is used to many golfers being in close proximity.

2) This is a captive bred bird that has been imprinted by people and has no 
fear to be close to people.  In fact it wants to be near people.  Note: The 
bird does not have any leg bands, etc.

For those of you who are still interested in seeing this bird, you should be 
successful through at least this weekend since there is no weather change 
forecasted.  The crane looks very comfortable feeding on the fairways and 
does not seem to be pressured by the golfers around it.  I believe it's 
daily routine is as follows.

At day break it can be found standing near the back of the golf clubhouse 
standing on the patio looking at it's reflection in the glass door.  (Maybe 
it thinks it is seeing a potential mate.)  Throughout the day it walks the 
fairways of the golfcourse (primarily the 8th, 10th and 18th holes).  Around 
6:00pm, it flys to the Greenville Sewage Treatment fields where it 
potentially spends the night.

Good luck.  It is as close as you can get to a "sure thing" Sandhill Crane 
in North Carolina.

-Brad Carlson
Winterville, NC
BradCarlson1@hotmail.com

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