Here’s the close up of the sandhill crane’s damaged beak I mentioned earlier today.

You can see feathers tangled in the fishing line. The other side of his beak shows the fishing lure protruding, and the rusting hook through the beak. I don’t have a good picture of that side. You can also see how his top beak is bent and shorter than the bottom, which makes it almost impossible for him to pick up small food, which is why I feed him bread. I’ve experimented a lot and observe him a lot, so I have figured out what size food is easiest for him to eat.

Poor thing. It just breaks my heart.

Isn’t he beautiful, though? And I really was that close to him. He lets us get quite close. Jim was able to pry a lot of gunk off his beak, but we haven’t been able to get the lure out. Yet. I have faith in us.

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