Beautiful Sandhill Cranes grace the sky over Percha Dam State Park in October.

Where I grew up in Northern California, these beautiful birds graced the grain fields to forage on wheat and barley dropped from the combines.  It was understood that they were not to be hunted. 
                    
There were also numerous flocks of Canadian Honkers, so it was never an issue, although our grey female cat, Smokey, did not care.  Anxious to feed herself and her kittens, she jumped on one from behind. It quickly took flight.  About three feet off the ground, Smokey realized her mistake and abandoned her attack.

Like geese, they form V's during flight to draft off of one-another.  They will change positions of leadership when the leader begins to tire.

It is fascinating to watch them break formation, bank into a turn, and fold their wings and drop into a landing.  However, I was not able to capture it on film.

There were several open, flat fields where the cranes could land.  They chose this one because it is a field where corn had been harvested.  They were busy gleaning fallen kernels.

Sandhill Cranes are about the same size as Great Blue Herons that also inhabit this area, but bulkier.  They are smaller than the Whooping Crane.

It is difficult to get a good close-up picture of the Sandhill Cranes with the lens I have for my camera.  If I had gotten any closer, they would have all taken to flight.

Closer examination of the Cranes reveals beautiful plumage with red feathers capping the head, blue feathers along the neck, and brown feathers along the wings and tail,  Here is a link where you can find pictures and information on the Sandhill Cranes: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/id

From Percha Dam State Park, we returned to Rock Hound State Park, our winter home of 2017/2018.

This little fellow came walking out from under our truck as we were preparing to unload it.  With the enlargement of the photo, this is very close to the actual size of it.  Brown tarantulas our not uncommon to the area.

I attempted to get a frontal view of the tarantula.  The scientific name is Aphonopelma hentzl. It is commonly known as the Texas brown tarantula, and is found throughout the southern United States.  Although many people fear spiders, these are not much more dangerous than a bee sting.  One of my colleges in graduate school had a tarantula for a pet that he let walk along his arm.  I wouldn't go that far, although he assured me as long as it was well fed, it would not bite.  To each his own.😇