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The first time a saw our national bird in the wild was in Etosha National Park in Namibia; a bit disturbing that thought - but a nice citing anyway. The Blue Crane population there is isolated (i.e. its the only place in Namibia where they are resident) and consist of 60 to 80 birds. [/img]

Darling Hills Road, October 2007

My first sighting of these lovely birds. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to see them several more times, but never so close to and relaxed.

Calling pair of Blue Crane.


Barcud

Heard these guys just outside Grahamstown yesterday!

These were taken at AENP this weekend

Our National bird . So beautiful and graceful , but surprisingly and sadly not very many posts/pics of them .

For those of you who wonder where they can be seen , well , this time of year they are often to be seen in open fields around Worcester area .




and another one

Overflying the Basotho Cultural Village in Golden gate highlands national park:



Due to conservation efforts their numbers are increasing a lot, and they are fairly regular visitors there now.

During last weekend's CAR count we counted 305 blue cranes on route MT05 (Platrand near Standerton) on a recently harvested corn field, the largest flock of blue cranes I have ever seen.



In winter the cranes "migrate" from the Western Cape to the Mpumalanga highveld and gather together in large numbers in relatively small areas. When you are lucky enough to encounter such a congregation, it is a sight to cherish!

This winter gathering starts to dissipate towards the end of August and in the summer months sightings of blue cranes on the highveld are rare.

Saw these in Mountain Zebra National Park

Wow - would give my front teeth to see 305 Blue Cranes together - what a wonderful privilege!

Stunning pics Sharifa!