Field Report - Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, TN

[ericbowles]

I visited the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge today for the third time in the last 6 weeks and wanted to share an update.

For those not familiar with HWR, it is a prime stopover for migrating sandhill cranes and occasional whooping cranes. It is also a good spot for bald eagles, many different types of ducks, and other small birds. Here is a link:
http://www.tnbirds.org/IBA/SitePages/Hiwasee.htm

On today's visit I saw more than 3500 sandhill cranes and one whooping crane. Cranes were at distances of 125 yards and further. The water in the main pond was 90% frozen, so the cranes started the day scattered around the fields and on the sandbars in the river. Normally they start nearby and scatter to the fields by 11:00 AM. Luckily today they came to a couple of fields near the main viewing area with lots of chances for interesting images. I was mainly shooting from 200mm to 560mm on a DX body with a 1.5 crop factor. A little more reach is always nice.

[Judd Patterson]

Eric, thank you so much for sharing your report and the link for more information. I really didn't think that a Whooping Crane would still be so far north. I know the Aransas / Wood Buffalo NP population has been in Texas for some time now. We don't see reports from non-Florida locations very often, so this is a treat. Please continue to share your experiences from other locations around the southeast. Thanks!

[Bill Wood]

I did not know about Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge until I read your thread here.

We live near Atlanta so my wife and I drove over there this week. It's only a 3 hour drive. We were there Tuesday and Wednesday and saw over 200 Sandhill Cranes each day.

It was great fun!

Here are some of the images I was fortunate enough to get:

[J. R. Weems]

Eric, THANK YOU! This seems to have slipped by me for some reason. I was directed to the HWR by a posting of a rare bird found there. Will be in the area next week while going and coming from Gulfport MS. Even though mostly closed, the tower is open so maybe I will get lucky enough to get some photos. I have a 600 I use on my D80 DX, and reserve my D700 for other things. Hope I get lucky. Spend some time at GSNP in the even years looking for bears, but plan on stopping by this trip, IF it snows. I need to check and see just how far they are apart.

Best,
J. R.