A pair of old friends come back to visit

The migration of sandhill cranes to Galveston begins from their nesting areas in northeastern Siberia, across coastal Alaska and down the central Canadian Arctic.

After their eggs hatch and their chicks grow to where they can fly, they begin their long flight to the marshy shorelines of our Gulf Coast.

By the time they arrive on Galveston Island in October, their chicks are young juveniles. People think that they come south to escape the cold, but our feathered friends are well insulated, and it is only the need for food and water that drives them here to their winter home.

Here, they fatten up on grass, worms and bugs. They return in early March back to their northern nests to repeat their life cycle.

The photograph “Proud Parents” is an example of just one of the many species of migrant birds we enjoy here on our Island between October and March of every year.

Sandhill cranes are one of 15 species of cranes found throughout the world. These proud parents are models of success. They have achieved another anniversary of successful living.

This particular pair of sandhills has come to this same spot where this picture was taken for the last five years. Each time they have arrived, they bring a young offspring with them. Their juvenile reaches maturity by the time they start their journey back to the Arctic Circle in March. They build nests, lay two eggs and start their life cycle again.

These noble birds overcome the harshest elements of nature. In their evenings here on Galveston Island, they fly at dusk to the same roosts they have used for years in the wetlands of West Bay.

They congregate with larger flocks of 50 to 100 others. Cold sheets of rain pound them incessantly during the winter. While standing on their feet all night, they defend themselves from predators.

The ongoing destruction of wetlands repeatedly destroys their roosts. Against all adversity, they continue doing what they were made to do — to fly, shout their resonant calls, prance and dance their courtship antics, mate, lay their eggs, hatch their young and then fly thousands of miles back to their winter home again.

Sandhill cranes are one of only two species of cranes that inhabit the North American continent. The nearly extinct whooping cranes are their cousins.

If you sometimes think that life is getting too tough for us humans, give yourself a break and drive down Settegast Road to see these beautiful creatures during the day.

They will remind you that nothing is impossible with God. These elegant members of the animal kingdom have overcome difficulty for the past 40 million to 60 million years, survivors of the Eocene period. You can hear in their guttural calls instructions for a successful life.

With courage and dignity, they demonstrate for mankind their simple formula for success: Take from the earth only what you need to live and give back to life all the beauty you were created to make.

Robert Moore is a Galveston attorney.