Follow That Bird

I see two Sandhill Cranes every morning when I jog. They are huge: they have a nearly 7' wingspan and can be up to 48" tall. I knew their height because I see them walking around but have never actually viewed their 7' wingspan... I didn't even know they could fly till today. They're the size of a small 4th grader. And today they provided me with a great deal of entertainment.

This AM I saw them crossing the road as I was jogging past. Not so much crossing as just standing there. I saw them and thought "Oh there are the ginormous birds" and all of the sudden I saw a car zooming toward them as it rounded a curve. I then thought "Oh goodness, they don't see the birds" and they didn't! So they slammed on the brakes and the car behind them was forced to do the same thing. Then I heard someone lay on the horn. I don't know if it was car #1 that almost hit the birds or car #2 yelling at #1 for stopping so suddenly. The horn was awful and it scared me a lot more than it did the birds!!! They sort of looked up at the car and were like "whatever" and started to make a strange bird sound. It was rather loud and bird-like but they did not move out of the way very fast. I was cracking up because the birds are literally not afraid of a damn thing. Two automobiles, one of which is honking? No biggie. As car #1 swerved around them the 2 birds did manage to get up on the grass so car #2 didn't have to swerve quite as much. I continued to hear them and their bird noises OVER the iPod noise as I turned into the development where I do a loop and again as I was leaving, toward the end of the jog. They were clearly agitated to be warbling and chattering and such for 20 minutes. But I'm pretty sure that, because birds are stupid, I'll see them in the same place the next time I jog.