Sandhill Crane in a Cornfield

Description

Each winter thousands of sandhill cranes vacation at Bosque del Apache near Socorro, New Mexico.  Dad photographed this lone sentry who was keeping watch for predators, namely coyotes. 

Usually one of the older cranes takes guard duty while the rest of the flock feeds.  On this day, despite its vigilance up front, a coyote did sneak into the back of the flock and it got one of the cranes.