Sand Hills aren’t very afraid of humans anyway. I’ve just gotten to know these two well, because they sleep in front of my house every night, for the last several years.

The only time we don’t see them, is when they have an egg at wherever they have their day time spot. For the last few days, only George has been showing up, which means Martha is probably on the egg somewhere. Soon, he’ll stay with her, and we won’t see them for a couple of months, until their new babies are old enough to fly to our house, their normal nighttime spot.

The first time they returned with two babies, my mom opened the door, and there was George, most of the way up the driveway, which he had never done before, with Martha and their two babies at the end of the driveway. George wanted to introduce me to his new family!

So I said “George! Welcome back! Are these your new babies? They’re beautiful!” And I walked up to the babies and stood right near them. They got nervous, but Martha and George were fine, so the babies settled down.

They don’t always show back up with babies, which is sad. They laid one in front of our house one year, but it disappeared after a few weeks. We think a coyote took it. George was very sad, and when I approached him after it disappeared, he lifted his head and called loudly. He was sharing his grief with me.

I know who all the animals around my house are, every bird and mammal, and even a couple of gators, but we don’t have relationships. George and I are true friends.