Sometimes we all need a story to warm our hearts.
This is it.
In a Madison, Wisconsin pond, a pair of sandhill cranes returned to their nesting spot in the spring with the newest addition to the family, a sandhill colt, only to discover their nest had flooded while they were away.
In search of a new home, they found a nest abandoned by a pair of Canadian geese and took up residence, only to discover one unhatched goose egg left behind by its parents.
That egg hatched days later, and the gosling that emerged immediately bonded with the female crane.
Thus, a new family was born:
Two sandhill cranes, their child, and their adopted gosling.
Weeks later, the geese returned to the nest to discover the sandhill cranes had adopted their gosling. They circled the nest for an hour while the gosling hid beneath its sandhill crane mother, and the sandhill crane father challenged the geese, charging at them as if to say:
“Back off. This adoption is permanent.”
The geese eventually relented, and the unlikely family remains intact today.
All of this has been documented by wildlife photographer Alan Ginsberg, who is clearly living his best life.
It would be lovely to think that human beings could be as kind and accepting as this pair of sandhill cranes. In a world filled with small, frightened, stupid people who are unable or unwilling to accept and embrace others who look differently, worship differently, love differently, and were born in places other than their own, it’s heartwarming to see a species of bird accept and embrace an entirely different species of bird as their own simply because a young bird was in need and they were able to help.
