A Weekend Adventure With a Fellow TPF'er

sm4him · Feb 11, 2013

I should probably have put these in the "Just for Fun" gallery but they ARE wildlife, and Scott's thread is in here, so here they are. They are NOT my best work and I'm not presenting them here as such--I've done very little editing on most of them, because they just aren't good enough to even be worth taking the time to try to "help" them. It was just such a cool experience, that I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of our journey.

This Saturday, Scott (SCraig) and I met up at the Hiawassee Wildlife Refuge just outside of Dayton, TN. This refuge boasts the largest winter population of sandhill cranes anywhere outside of Florida. They start arriving in mid-November and stay until sometime mid- to late February. Unfortunately, the refuge is closed in...you guessed it, mid-November until the end of February.

So, the only place you can view the cranes is from the Observation Platform. I'm told that before the festival they hold in mid-January, there are cornfields that the cranes like to come up into, so there's a better chance of seeing them closer.

But when Scott and I were there, they were all too far away even for his 150-500mm to be of much use, and certainly too far for me 75-300, even with the 1.4x TC on it. Scott did manage to get a nice shot of one (see his thread here), but I got nothing. It was still well worth the time and travel--it is one of those experiences that photos can't really describe anyway. The bulk of the cranes were on the FAR side of the river from us:

Bunches of them would suddenly decide to try out a new patch of riverbank and would all take flight at once:

HiawasseeFeb9_2013_6636editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

At one point (this was later in the day, nearly the time I was getting ready to leave), about half the cranes on the far side of the river deciding to pull up stakes at once:

HiawasseeFeb9_2013_7302editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

We also saw a bald eagle, and a red-tailed hawk, but I didn't get decent shots of those either. After Scott left though (SORRY, Scott!

) at one point there were EIGHT bald eagles spotted--seven of them flying (one adult and six juveniles!) and one of the birders spotted another adult in a tree. While they are not great quality, I did get a couple of shots I liked of the eagles:

A Juvenile:

HiawasseeFeb9_2013_7011editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

Then an adult with a juvenile:

HiawasseeFeb9_2013_7015editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

And then the adult and the juvenile again...UPSIDE DOWN!

HiawasseeFeb9_2013_7010editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

A couple of the juveniles then started dive-bombing all the ducks in the river. I really wish I'd had more reach to get better shots of that!

HiawasseeFeb9_2013_7117editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

All in all, it was a remarkable experience!! I plan to go back soon, probably once the refuge opens back up in March. I won't get to see the cranes then, but there are supposedly also ospreys and more, so I'm hoping to be able to get closer shots of something. I also definitely plan on going back next winter, but this time I'll go earlier in the winter...and I'll probably rent a nice long lens for the trip too!

SCraig · Feb 11, 2013

Personally I think the shots you posted here present what we saw very well. It's hard to envision that many large birds milling around, flying around, walking around, and your shots show that much better than mine do. The eagle shots are most definitely better than anything I got!

It was a great trip and I'm ready to go again

baturn · Feb 11, 2013

I like the two shots of the adult and juvenile flying together. Getting it all right for two dark, moving objects against a bright blue sky is no easy task. Well done!

coastalconn · Feb 11, 2013

Looks like you had a good meet-up! It must have been fun seeing all those cranes. Gotta love seeing eagles cruise by also!

sm4him · Feb 11, 2013

SCraig said:
Personally I think the shots you posted here present what we saw very well. It's hard to envision that many large birds milling around, flying around, walking around, and your shots show that much better than mine do. The eagle shots are most definitely better than anything I got!

It was a great trip and I'm ready to go again

Thanks, Scott--I just realized that unless one flew right past me (which never happened), I wasn't going to get the close-up shot, so I might as well try for whole group shots. Even at that, I didn't get much. Most of my photos demonstrate that there were so many of them it was hard to decide which one to focus on...so I evidently didn't focus on ANY of them. :lol:

I'm definitely ready to go again!
Can't wait to try it a little earlier next year.

baturn said:
I like the two shots of the adult and juvenile flying together. Getting it all right for two dark, moving objects against a bright blue sky is no easy task. Well done!

Thanks, baturn--it was just SO cool to see all those eagles flying together; wish I could have gotten a shot with all seven of them in it! Up until late last year, I'd never seen a single eagle in the wild, so that many at once was really a treat for me.
Those two were diving at each other, and I was just trying to capture a moment of contact between them. I didn't actually know until I got home that I'd gotten them both upside down in one.

coastalconn said:
Looks like you had a good meet-up! It must have been fun seeing all those cranes. Gotta love seeing eagles cruise by also!

As I said above, it was truly awesome--not an experience I can say I'd ever had before, but definitely one I'd like to repeat. With an 800mm. :lmao:

JacaRanda · Feb 11, 2013

I really dig the two eagles Sharon. The fact that you got to hook up with a fellow TPF'er and enjoy the experience is really cool too! I would love to see what you and Scraig saw. Fellowship.. Ahhh

SCraig · Feb 11, 2013

It was a lot of fun, no question about it. All those Cranes in one spot is a sight that has to be seen to be appreciated. And having Sharon join me was just the icing on the cake.

I saw the first group of them a couple of miles from the refuge. I had my window down and could hear them honking, and looked up to see a couple of dozen flying in a group back toward the water. That was an exciting sight, but then I got to the refuge and saw literally HUNDREDS of them milling around everywhere. I can't judge numbers, there could have been several thousand, I just don't know. All I know is they were everywhere around the water.

If you want to hear what they sound like, click Here and play the first audio clip. It's pretty much what I recall it sounding like most of the time. The second and third clips are a little "Busier" than I remember it.

JacaRanda · Feb 12, 2013

I can only imagine hearing that and seeing it at the same time. My cats certainly perked up

sm4him · Feb 12, 2013

JacaRanda said:
I really dig the two eagles Sharon. The fact that you got to hook up with a fellow TPF'er and enjoy the experience is really cool too! I would love to see what you and Scraig saw. Fellowship.. Ahhh

Thanks; yes it was a fun experience and made even better by getting to have an IRL meeting with a fellow TPF'er.

SCraig said:
It was a lot of fun, no question about it. All those Cranes in one spot is a sight that has to be seen to be appreciated. And having Sharon join me was just the icing on the cake.

I saw the first group of them a couple of miles from the refuge. I had my window down and could hear them honking, and looked up to see a couple of dozen flying in a group back toward the water. That was an exciting sight, but then I got to the refuge and saw literally HUNDREDS of them milling around everywhere. I can't judge numbers, there could have been several thousand, I just don't know. All I know is they were everywhere around the water.

If you want to hear what they sound like, click Here and play the first audio clip. It's pretty much what I recall it sounding like most of the time. The second and third clips are a little "Busier" than I remember it.

Oh, cool, sound effects!!! Yep, that first one is definitely what it was like--I kept meaning to take a little bit of video, and then forgetting about it. I just never think of video.

SCraig · Feb 12, 2013

JacaRanda said:
I can only imagine hearing that and seeing it at the same time. My cats certainly perked up

One of mine did to! He was running up and down the hall trying to figure what in the world was making that noise in HIS house

The other one just rolled over with this "What in the hell are you doing now" look on her face.

SCraig · Feb 12, 2013

Update ....

I was outside my office a few minutes ago when I HEARD a Sandhill Crane. As soon as I heard it I knew EXACTLY what it was, and last week at this time I couldn't have said that. I started looking around at the sky and sure enough saw two flights of them in "V" formations heading back northwest.

JacaRanda · Feb 12, 2013

"Oh, cool, sound effects!!! Yep, that first one is definitely what it was like--I kept meaning to take a little bit of video, and then forgetting about it. I just never think of video."

Once again I feel your pain. There are soooo many things to learn and then remember. Frankly it's part of the fun and addiction. One thing I really want to remember and havent so far, is to turn on all my focus points when trying to track a bird in flight. AI Servo easy, auto point selection - not so much.

jwbryson1 · Feb 12, 2013

If Scott is as cool in person as he is on TPF, then that had to be a great day.

Very cool that people are meeting in person and sharing their photographic skills and experiences.

sm4him · Feb 12, 2013

jwbryson1 said:
If Scott is as cool in person as he is on TPF, then that had to be a great day.

Very cool that people are meeting in person and sharing their photographic skills and experiences.

Scott let me use his Sigma 150-500 for a bit. He is definitely just as cool IRL!!

Actually, he would have let me use it for longer than I did, but I was afraid that I'd be using it when the really "great shot opportunity" came along, and I'd miss focus or something...I really wanted the better photographer using the better equipment!