Tennessee Sandhill Cranes

About 20,000 Sandhill Cranes spend at least part of the winter at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Southeast Tennessee, not too far from Chattanooga. We were there for our first visit on February 1st.

You can only view the birds from a small area near where they spend the night. While I would have liked more options, that’s OK. Even with the limited flexibility, there were plenty of birds and photographic potential. Naturally, a local told us that we should have been there a week earlier.

That’s how it goes with migratory birds. When we went to the Bosque del Apache a couple of years ago, the campground host told us that all the campers left the previous week. That meant that the birds had left two weeks prior.

Toward evening, when it looked like things had slowed down, people started leaving. Joyce and I were the only ones left in the viewing area when the previously mentioned local showed up with a lens longer than my arm. She told us that everyone leaves before the best time, which was yet to come. Sure enough. We got a decent sunset and a few shots as a bunch more birds were coming in for the night.

Coming Down Slow

It’s taken a while to get around to this post, mostly because I was disappointed in the pictures. We got a few OK pictures, but nothing that really grabbed me. We’ll have to try again next year.