Bird baths, quizzical garden gnomes, mirrored "gazing balls" on painted concrete pedestals, ducks with propeller wings, and wooden cutouts of the backsides of country folk gardening -- these lawn ornaments pale in comparison to the mother of all lawn ornaments, the plastic pink flamingo. And if a plastic flamingo can make it big in the Lore of the Yard, why not other big tropical birds?
Snowbird roosts and seasonal RV park lots in Florida are often decorated with objects that can be described as quaint, homey, whimsical, fanciful and kitschy. That's when I'm feeling charitable. At other times, bizarre, laughable, eccentric, outlandish or perhaps just weird come to mind. So why not have a life size Sandhill Crane, one leg raised in the air, perched in the middle of your yard?
My first thought was, "if they're going to have a plastic crane, they should at least have a couple of them." But then I understood in a flash when the lawn ornament slowly blinked at me, and then set his raised foot on the ground.
It was a majestic Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) who had been standing perfectly still in the middle of the lawn, oblivious to the people fixing their roof behind him and the walkers, bikers and occasional cars on the road directly in front. Eventually he moved about 5 feet and then stopped again. He didn't seem to mind me being there, and when I finally moved off he had re-stuffed one leg under his body, and was again patiently waiting for ... whatever a Sandhill Crane stands in a yard and waits for. He wasn't telling.
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