Sandhill Cranes At The Hiawassee Wildlife Refuge

[Scott Whaley]

I got to go out on Christmas day, well, really early Christmas morning and shoot some photos at the Hiawassee Wildlife Refuge in Meggs County, TN. The Sandhill Cranes migrate here during the Winter. It is usually too cold to go out there because of the air blowing off of the lake. The temperature was in the upper 50's to lower 60's and the wind was blowing around 25 to 30 miles per hour.. There were several thousand Sandhill Cranes there and the wind made them very jumpy. Here are a few photos I was able to get.

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[terri]

These are beautiful! Very nice set.

It's really hard to pick a fave when the whole set looks good, but I do like the ones where you caught them in formation, like #s 4 and 10.

The light looks odd in #7. Darker than the others. Was that one taken before the sun was up all the way?

 

[Scott Whaley]

Thanks. I had the camera set a little under exposed. I tried to bring the exposure up and it added a lot of noise so I decided to keep it under exposed.

 

[Jeff15]

Very good shooting.....

 

[Scott Whaley]

Very good shooting.....

Thanks!

 

[K9Kirk]

Nice set, Scott. I think I like #5 and 8 best.

 

[jeffashman]

Very nice set! I like #3 and #4 particularly, but like them all.

 

[joelbolden]

Like Jeff said. We are starting to see more and more Sandhill's here in Pennsylvania, but the last one I saw was 4 years ago. Beautiful birds.

 

[PJM]

Great set!