Noisy Birds

Can you identify these birds? They are sandhill cranes. During the summer months they fly overhead every morning on their way to the marsh and fly back in the afternoon. They’re noisy!

Flying Fish Wives

From inside the house

I hear the cranes

Flying overhead.

Chatter-prattle

Jabber-twaddle

Complaining fish wives

As if they own the sky.

The First Snow Birds

For ten million winters

Sandhill cranes

With six foot wingspans

Have flapped a thousand miles

To forage roots, frogs and worms in a shallow marsh

And dance in the southern sun.