Tennessee Conservationist Features Majestic Sandhill Cranes

Louise Zepp, editor of the Tennessee Conservationist,  has selected "Tennessee's Majestic Sandhill Cranes" as the website's feature article for the November/December issue to help promote the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival, scheduled for January 19th and 20th, 2013.

The most exciting part about being selected as the feature article is that the entire article is available for reading on line.   So visit the link provided below and enjoy!  The article features the Eastern Population of Greater Sandhill Cranes and their spectacular migration staging each fall when they stop to rest and feed at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.  That collection of thousands of sandhill cranes creates a majestic spectacle that we all enjoy seeing and celebrating each year at our Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival.

The beautiful four-page layout includes six full color images, including my watercolor, "Sandhills Landing", depicting one of my favorite sandhill crane postures as they float down for a landing.

If you do not already subscribe to this beautiful magazine, you should, so also visit the subscription section while you are visiting the article at the website.

A special thank you, again, to Louise Zepp, TN Conservationist editor, for promoting our majestic sandhill cranes and the sandhill crane festival!

Links and Resources:
Visit my blog posts on sandhill cranes and the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival  .
Visit this link to see my other Tennessee Conservationist articles.
The Tennessee Conservationist website

Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and the Hooded Crane

While I'm typing this, the wind is howling outside my window and blowing snow, as though the winter has suddenly remembered Tennessee and is arriving in blustering style.  Despite the discomfort these fronts bring, they often create the best crane viewing conditions, bringing cranes and many other wintering birds down into Tennessee to escape the harsh weather in more northern states.

Photo credit:  David Roemer

To wet your appetite and prepare you for what you will see at the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival this weekend, January 14th and 15th, I am re-publishing last night's TN-bird post from Charles Murray.  Charles is a member of the Tennessee Ornithological Society and a resident of Birchwood, TN, and has been at the refuge daily welcoming visitors and keeping all of us posted on the most recent bird sightings there.  His latest post, Jan 12th, was especially fun to read!

Lots of things were happening at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Meigs Co. at Birchwood today.  Two whooping cranes were seen from about 8-8:30 a.m. in a winter wheat field on top of the hill across the slough from the gazebo.  A Ross's goose and 2 blue phase snow geese were noted.  Several immature bald eagles were in view, including 2 immature bald eagles which did a talon-to-talon rollover display in mid-air.  Then several of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources commissioners arrived and stayed for about an hour during which time they saw thousands of sandhill cranes and several eagles.  The hooded crane was spotted about 1:20 p.m. in the same general area that the juvenile whoopers had been in earlier in the day.  It was in and out of view until about 3 p.m. when it was chased by a sandhill crane and flew out of sight to the west.  Hopefully, the hooded crane will still be in view Saturday and Sunday for the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival centered at Birchwood Elementary School.  I went to the Cherokee Removal Memorial very late, about 5:50 p.m., where I shared a sighting of at least 4 whooping cranes in a flooded area on Hiwassee Island with a visitor from Oklahoma.  61 visitors included a person from Minnesota for the first time.  Eleven states, Canada, and the district of Columbia were represented among the visitors [today].  People from 42 states and 10 nations have now contributed to at least 2614 visits to the HWR since December 14, 2011

Directions to the refuge can be found at Tennessee Watchable Wildlife--Hiwassee  

Visitors to the weekend crane festival will need to park at Birchwood Elementary School and ride the shuttle buses to HWR.  The buses will run at least every 15 minutes.  Only handicap parking will be allowed at the HWR.  Shuttles will also go to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park.  DRESS WARMLY!  Predictions are for temperatures in the 20's in the mornings and 40's in the afternoons.  

Charles Murray

Birchwood, TN

Photo credit:  David Roemer.  

See you at the festival!

Links and Resources:

Jan 12th news report and video of Hiwassee's cranes.  Best part is the voice of the cranes.  Read my previous post to learn about the sandhill crane and whooping crane migrations to the refuge.

American Birding Association blog post on hooded crane.

Mike Nelson's Flicker site with Hooded crane video and photo stream

At my companion blog, Vickie's Sketchbook:  Sandhill Cranes and Art
Sandhill crane art in my website galleries

On this blog:  Whooping Crane Family Series and Whooping Crane Ultralight Migration

We are One

“We are One”, Bo Taylor explained, after an interactive dance that engaged the entire audience in a human spiral that turned in the center of the gym.
And this was the overriding theme of a presentation that both entertained and educated an enchanted audience in Birchwood, TN, on November 15th. Since its inception, 17 years ago, Cherokee history has been an integral part of the Cherokee Heritage and Sandhill Crane Festival.

In 1838, Blythe Ferry, located just outside the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge on the banks of the Tennessee River was a major holding area for nine encampments of Cherokee and Creek Indians. It was here that over 9000 individuals, some sick and elderly, all grieving, waited for months until they could cross and begin their forced journey to Oklahoma in the historic Trail of Tears. To honor those who suffered this tragedy, the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park has been established at Blythe Ferry, adjacent to the Hiwassee State Wildlife Refuge.
Dressed in his hand-made outfit incorporating the uplifting colors of a rainbow, Bo Taylor, a Cherokee Indian from Cherokee, NC, announced, "Anybody can dance. And you can't dance without laughing". To demonstrate this, he led the audience through several interactive dances. And with story-telling and demonstration, he brought together the messages of respect for others’ differences and treating yourself and your heritage with honor.
Above, he recruits Jennifer Perdew, Operations Manager of Ocoee Adventure Company, to help demonstrate absurd and thoughtless reactions people sometimes have to differences. And below, well...let's dance.
Laughter creates community and warms hearts.

Personality Plus

Most of us have seen vultures riding thermals midmorning, soaring in kettles in the afternoon, drying their wings in the sun, or roosting just before dusk.
Many can even tell a turkey vulture from a black vulture in flight. But few have seen a vulture running on the ground in their half-skip, half-hop fashion all puffed up like a tom turkey. That is just what S.O.A.R.’s black vulture, Cayce, treated the audience to in their birds of prey show at the Sandhill Crane Festival in Birchwood, TN on Saturday. Personality plus is a good way to sum up this bird. Imprinted on humans at a very young age after falling out of the nest, she stole the show on Saturday with her amusing antics, as she hissed, hopped, bobbed her head in a dance-like fashion and followed Dale around the floor.


Below you can see the intrique on a few children's faces and her wingspan next to the size of her handler, Dale, as Cayce is about to demonstrate her flight skills. And she does, handsomely, skimming the heads of viewers with her long dangling toes.
Vultures are our scavengers, the birds that help clean up our world. They are intelligent and curious, and as you can see, have personality. I even have a naturalist friend, author Stephen Lyn Bales of Nature Calling, who muses about being a vulture in another life so he can sleep late, ride thermals and play in the wind.

But there are others who think vultures are unattractive, even ugly. What do you think?

Submitted to Bird Photography Weekly #12 at Birdfreak.com to promote the conservation of our world's birds.

Sandhill Crane Festival, Birchwood, TN—Fun for all of us Kids!

Keeping a tradition of 17 years, Birchwood Elementary School, Meigs County, Tennessee, welcomed the community and wildlife enthusiasts to the annual Cherokee Heritage and Sandhill Crane Viewing festival this past Saturday (Nov 15).
This year’s event added greater focus on interactive activities for kids. Along with art projects and face painting, activities included dissecting regurgitated owl pellets! Not so messy as it sounds, the pellets were dry and contain hidden animal bones and skulls that the kids could find like hidden treasure. The activity went over so well, organizers are planning to expand on this theme next year by adding a virtual interactive program.

Because the exhibits were located in the gym with the presentations, I actually got to enjoy the programs, too. Among the presenters, John and Dale Stokes from S.O.A.R. performed their outstanding birds of prey show.Dale shows the crowd an American Kestrel.
In his second flying demonstration, the kestrel steals his prey and puts the viewers on edge by landing in the rafters. Then he peers down at everyone from his high perch! Coaxed down with another treat and signal, he rejoins his handlers and mantels the next food he captures from John's hand. Below, John shows the crowd a barred owl. All of S.O.A.R.'s educational birds are either injured or were imprinted on humans at an early age and are unable to survive in the wild. (Don't miss the expressions on the lower right of the photo!)
Below a broad-winged hawk...

who flies to Dale and snatches his prey. It's fun to get a close look at the relative size of these birds compared to each other and to humans.
Below, Dale introduces a red-tailed hawk with the "Krider's" pale morph coloration found more often in the west.

His flight demonstrations caused the crowd to gasp as he flew low over heads and lifted up at the last minute to land on Dale's glove with precision.


Pay a visit to S.O.A.R.'s blog for information about upcoming shows or to schedule a program.
Next: A black vulture steals the show.

Sandhill Crane Viewing this Weekend!

For the 17th year, the Cherokee Heritage and Sandhill Crane Viewing Days will have a presence at Birchwood Elementary school in Birchwood, TN and the Hiwassee State Wildlife Refuge.

This year's event is organized by the Birchwood School, area volunteers and Meigs County Tourism Council.

Although, it won't feel the same without participation from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, who experienced budget cuts this season, in a recent conversation with Dan Hicks, Region III spokesperson, Dan said he expects their participation to return to full swing for next year. This season they are surveying the waterfowl and sandhill cranes for migration and feeding patterns to obtain more information about food plantings and the scheduling of the 2009 festival.The event will be held on Saturday and Sunday this weekend and there will be exhibits, food, presentations and lots of wildlife viewing!

I will be exhibiting my sandhill crane and whooping crane watercolor notecards, prints, gourd art and jewelry. I will also have plenty of information on hand about the history of greater sandhill cranes in Tennessee, the re-introduction of the endangered whooping crane to the eastern flyway and Operation Migration's current ultralight migration.

If you're going to be in the area, come by my exhibit and say 'hello'!