wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 03 Dec 2016 16:53:26 -0500, micky
wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 03 Dec 2016 15:33:26 -0600, "cowabunga dude"
wrote:


When I went out to get the mail a sandhill crane flew away from on top of the storage building, overlooking the stock tank.

They've been around before and never been a problem. I like seeing them around when they drink from the stock tank.

When I poured in some fish food I watched for the fish to swarm around and eat, there wasn't any fish. There had been four large eight inch, two large four inch, and the rest were around three inches, but skinny. There were seventeen, now there are none.

I poked around with a stick, and still no fish.

Never before have fish been missing after I've seen sandhill cranes.

As you might be able to tell, I'm disappointed.
Sandhill cranes are omnivorous, meaning they eat a variety of plant and
animal matter. Some of their favorite meal items include seeds, plant
tubers, grains, berries, insects, earthworms, mice, snakes, lizards,
frogs and crayfish. Unlike other wading birds, such as herons, sandhill
cranes do not "fish."
Of course this assumes you have the right name for the bird. Lots of
pictures on the web, but I'm feeling nostalgic so I'm going to look in
my World Book Encylopedia. Where did I put that?
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/id
Sandhill cranes are fairly social birds that usually live in pairs or
family groups through the year. During migration and winter, unrelated
cranes come together to form "survival groups"** that forage and roost
together. Such groups often congregate at migration and winter sites,
sometimes in the thousands.

Sandhill cranes are mainly herbivorous, but eat various types of food,
depending on availability. They often feed with their bills down to the
ground as they root around for seeds and other foods, in shallow
wetlands with vegetation or various upland habitats. Cranes readily eat
cultivated foods such as corn, wheat, cottonseed, and sorghum. Waste
corn is useful to cranes preparing for migration, providing them with
nutrients for the long journey.[18] Among northern races of sandhill
cranes, the diet is most varied, especially among breeding birds. They
variously feed on berries, small mammals, insects, snails, reptiles, and
amphibians.

**which cranes call militias.

Everything but fish, and many of your fish sound bigger than small
mammals (mice?) and amphibians (small? frogs?) I get the feeling the
amphhibians are on land when they catch them.

So I don't think so.

I'm fairly certain they're sandhill cranes since this is the desert area of west Texas.

They fly over in large flocks. A few stragglers will stop off and drink at the stock tank. Up north around Muleshoe you can see them by the thousands on the ground.

One time one landed right after I got home and before I could get out of the truck. I tried moving slowly to take its picture, but the first sign of movement it was gone.

There is a lot of farming spread out around the area.