Photographers in the modern era instantiate a vital role: we constantly document animals and events that might not exist in the future. Nothing in life is inevitable. Even physical photographs fade; books crumble; and memories leave the collective consciousness. We are experiencing the biggest species extinctions in human history, and in a short while some people will not experience what we have had in our lives. Children will not know of these magical animals except through our photographs, videos and retellings.
After hiking, I found two magnificent Blue Crane birds (Grus paradisea) walking in a random field. These massive birds, with 2-meter wingspans, are endangered and might not be here in the future.
This is the national bird of South Africa and it is vulnerable with only about 25,000 breeding pairs in the wild. I cannot even think about a country without these birds. Their sound is engraved into my consciousness; I hear them constantly in the afternoons when I sit and study. When we drive through the wheat fields, we see them in their pairs walking and searching for food.
Here is a video 
They are really big; as said their wingspan is 2-meter across. I walked close to them to get the perfect shot. Their presence is amazing and their call is so loud. To experience it in real life is totally different to the video above. You need to experience it in real life.
In the time since the beginning of my birding experience, I have never had the opportunity to take photographs of these birds. There are various breeding pairs on my way to the wheat farm where I normally buy my wheat from, but I have never managed to take photographs of them. Now, after so many years, I have managed to take some photographs of them.
It saddens me to think about what is going on today; we normal people cannot do anything about the situation. We can grow our own food, we can minimise our meat intake, we can live to such an extent that our impact is minimal, but this will mean almost nothing in the bigger scheme of events. People will still act in their negligent ways, people will still be ignorant of what is going on around them.
The saddest thing about death is that we cannot get it back. With the death of a family member, memories, recipes, stories, knowledge, everything is lost. With the death of a species, all of the beauty and individuality of that species will be lost. Death is the most violent act.
On a different note, I was lucky to have my Nikon D300 with its continuous mode on. The big blue crane bird shook its feathers and I could take a continuous burst of it in focus, for a chance!
We drove home after the encounter and I cannot stop thinking about it. It was magical. It is funny how we remember the encounter with beings bigger than usual. The encounter with a small bird might not leave an impression, but one with these big birds in the wild will leave an impression, not always a happy one.
A world without these magical animals will surely be a world less rich. As with most animals that die out, the world becomes less colourful. We have managed to do so many things in life, we have perfected farming and other activities to such a degree that we cannot think about life without it. I do not understand why we cannot just either make "useless space" wild again, or to breed these endangered species on bigger scales. Release these "wild" animals back into the wild and help them populate. But I am naive in my thoughts.
In any case, I hope that you enjoyed this post of a magnificent bird with a rather sad reality/story linked to it. Hopefully, the future will be bright and colourful, rich with diversity. Time will tell. It is kind of in our hands, but also not. The majority can resist the takeover by the rich and those who do not care. But we are fooled by their delusions. We need to wake up from our slumber. Let us hope.
In any case, happy birding, and keep well.
All of the photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens. The writings and musings are also my own, unless stated otherwise or hyperlinked.