Last week my ride took me past a small pond which often has some ducks in it this time of year. This time there were a pair of Sandhill Cranes in the water, quite close to the road and nearly invisible because their coloring matched the still dead reeds in the pond. I must have startled them and they started calling, loudly, which scared the beejeebers out of me. I think I levitated about two feet off of the saddle before I figured out what the noise was. I'll stick with "The Sounds of Silence" for a while now, thank you.