Sandhill Cranes

SCraig

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I headed east for Dayton, TN and the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge today. During the winter months Sandhill Cranes migrate south from the Great Lakes region to Florida, and many of them stop at the Hiwassee Refuge as opposed to flying the rest of the way to the Florida migration areas. The statistics for 2010 stated that the estimate of Sandhill Cranes on the refuge that year was about 50,000!

I met Sharon (SM4HIM) there and we spent several hours just marveling over the number of birds there! One man I spoke with said that usually by this time of year they have already started heading back north, so what we saw may have been some of the last ones remaining. Also, Hiwassee is a large wildlife refuge, and we were limited to one small area. We kept seeing them fly in from off to the sides to I really have no idea how many are there. We probably saw a thousand or so, and to see that many large birds flocking together and flying in groups is just absolutely amazing.

One thing to keep in mind is that we were limited to the observation area. That area was a minimum of 125 meters from the birds, and sometimes farther, so there aren't any good "Detail" shots of the birds. My Sigma 150-500 records infinity focus at 122.89 meters and anything longer that that simply shows that value for the "Focus Distance" in the EXIF data. We could not get any closer to the birds and the birds were not coming any closer to us. I got a couple of shots of one that flew by relatively close (the focus distance was recorded as 112 meters) but that's as close as I got to one all day. I shot with my D7000 and Sigma 150-500mm lens. Part of the time I added 1.4 teleconverter for a 35mm equivalent focal length of 1,050mm.

The only decent "Detail" shot I got all day. 500mm (no TC) at 112 meters and heavily cropped.
2013-02-09-13.jpg


This area stretched a long distance either side of this shot, and was literally covered with Sandhill Cranes
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The birds started flying in from somewhere off to our right, and this long stream of them just kept coming and coming.
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These are at the close edge of the water, but "Close" is relative .....
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2013-02-09-01.jpg


Seeing that many large birds in one area is an absolute treat! They make an odd honking sound and when a large bunch of them starts honking at the same time it's really eerie sounding.

I would have LOVED to get closer but there was just no way. First off, a ranger I talked with said that they are more skittish than Herons so they would have flown away before I got halfway to them. The other thing is that the area leading down to them was mud much like in the photo above, and I would have been down to my knees before I got much closer at all. It was a great trip though.
 
really like the first shot
 
I had a great time today! We definitely need to plan another adventure!

That first shot is far better than anything I came away with. It may be Monday before I can process any of mine though--too, too tired tonight, and church tomorrow. Might try to get a few done tomorrow afternoon.

I stayed a LITTLE longer than an hour after you (as in, you may have been nearly home by the time I left). Do you even WANT to know why?? :D
 
I had a great time today! We definitely need to plan another adventure!

That first shot is far better than anything I came away with. It may be Monday before I can process any of mine though--too, too tired tonight, and church tomorrow. Might try to get a few done tomorrow afternoon.

I stayed a LITTLE longer than an hour after you (as in, you may have been nearly home by the time I left). Do you even WANT to know why?? :D
Do I WANT To know? Of course not! I told you as I was leaving that something good would come along as soon as I left. But, naturally I do HAVE to know and I bet that Eagle came back.

I had a great time as well and I'm glad you were able to come. It was an amazing sight and well worth the trip. I doubt that I'll get back before they leave this year but I'm certainly going back again next winter. I know one thing though, I'm just a bit tired ;)
 
I had a great time as well and I'm glad you were able to come. It was an amazing sight and well worth the trip. I doubt that I'll get back before they leave this year but I'm certainly going back again next winter. I know one thing though, I'm just a bit tired ;)

Next year, we need to go in mid-December or pretty early January. Several of the "regulars" who showed up after you'd left started telling us about their habits and stuff. Evidently, those fields we wanted them to come up into are plowed over cornfields. When the cranes come in, they start working their way through the corn so they congregate on the outside edges of the corn; by the time they've eaten everything on the perimeter, they've trampled those stalks down enough to get at the "next layer." So, they tend to be up closer during that period of time. Just before the festival in January, they plow over those fields.

It also turns out that more often than not, there are more on OUR side of the water than over on that far side. Most of the regular birders were quite surprised that they were all over there.


Do I WANT To know? Of course not! I told you as I was leaving that something good would come along as soon as I left. But, naturally I do HAVE to know and I bet that Eagle came back.

Well--nothing really happened for well OVER an hour. Just more sandhill cranes hopelessly out of reach. But several birders showed up and I got involved in conversations with them about the cranes, and some of the ducks and such, so I stuck around longer than I'd planned. Almost packed it up once, then there was a fresh flurry of activity and I got sucked back in.

Then---yes, the eagle showed back up. And then a birder found the other adult up in one of the trees (not close enough for me to take a picture, though). THEN, a juvenile showed up. And another one. And another.
EIGHT EAGLES, by our count!! All but one of them flying in the SAME area of the sky at the same time!! I have never seen anything like it, and evidently, it's QUITE unusual, judging by how excited they all were too. It really was incredible, and I *really* wished you and your 500mm+ reach were still there. ;) They were close enough that you could probably have gotten some "reasonably" decent shots of several together; and individually, several of them flew right overhead.

Then two of the juveniles started dive-bombing the duck gathering out there. I *may* have gotten one even semi-usable shot of that--you know how far out there those ducks were!

Then about half of the cranes on that far side decided it was time to take flight--they still didn't come that close, landed over there were the green pasture area was--but it was still a sight to behold! HUNDREDS of them in flight at once (with the accompanying noise!)
 
Next year, we need to go in mid-December or pretty early January. Several of the "regulars" who showed up after you'd left started telling us about their habits and stuff. Evidently, those fields we wanted them to come up into are plowed over cornfields. When the cranes come in, they start working their way through the corn so they congregate on the outside edges of the corn; by the time they've eaten everything on the perimeter, they've trampled those stalks down enough to get at the "next layer." So, they tend to be up closer during that period of time. Just before the festival in January, they plow over those fields.

It also turns out that more often than not, there are more on OUR side of the water than over on that far side. Most of the regular birders were quite surprised that they were all over there.
Agreed. I read about this back in the fall and wrote it down on my winter bucket list, then promptly forgot about it. I remembered it about the middle of January and then got a cold for several days, so it got put off again. The problem with December and January around here is that it almost has to be a spur of the moment decision. No way we could plan it a week in advance because of the weather.

Well--nothing really happened for well OVER an hour. Just more sandhill cranes hopelessly out of reach. But several birders showed up and I got involved in conversations with them about the cranes, and some of the ducks and such, so I stuck around longer than I'd planned. Almost packed it up once, then there was a fresh flurry of activity and I got sucked back in.

Then---yes, the eagle showed back up. And then a birder found the other adult up in one of the trees (not close enough for me to take a picture, though). THEN, a juvenile showed up. And another one. And another.
EIGHT EAGLES, by our count!! All but one of them flying in the SAME area of the sky at the same time!! I have never seen anything like it, and evidently, it's QUITE unusual, judging by how excited they all were too. It really was incredible, and I *really* wished you and your 500mm+ reach were still there. ;) They were close enough that you could probably have gotten some "reasonably" decent shots of several together; and individually, several of them flew right overhead.

Then two of the juveniles started dive-bombing the duck gathering out there. I *may* have gotten one even semi-usable shot of that--you know how far out there those ducks were!

Then about half of the cranes on that far side decided it was time to take flight--they still didn't come that close, landed over there were the green pasture area was--but it was still a sight to behold! HUNDREDS of them in flight at once (with the accompanying noise!)
Yeah, it figures ;( I knew that if I left something would happen, it always does. Of course if I HAD stayed then nothing would have happened. Story of my life. That would have been an amazing sight to see, sorry I missed it.
 
Scott, that first one is just great. You noted that it is heavily cropped, so a suggestion. Can you crop it so that the bird is more to the left of the image? That way it gives the bird "room" to fly into the the picture. Just a thought - that's all.

WesternGuy
 
Scott, that first one is just great. You noted that it is heavily cropped, so a suggestion. Can you crop it so that the bird is more to the left of the image? That way it gives the bird "room" to fly into the the picture. Just a thought - that's all.

WesternGuy

Thanks, glad you like it. Out of 550 shots today that one is by far the best.

I did crop it with the bird pushed to the left at first but didn't like it. With no background to speak of it really looked unbalanced that way with nothing but blue on the right side. That one is a "Little Bit" to the left side, I have his eye on the right side vertical "Third" line.

Here's the one pushed well to the left, and I don't think it looks as good. It could just be me though.
2013-02-09-13b.jpg
 
I prefer the first crop--normally, I do like to give my subject room to "fly into" (or walk into, or look into) in the frame, but *for me*, I prefer when the subject is something like this, I'd rather fill more of the frame with the bird.
 
I prefer the first crop--normally, I do like to give my subject room to "fly into" (or walk into, or look into) in the frame, but *for me*, I prefer when the subject is something like this, I'd rather fill more of the frame with the bird.

Agreed. If there was "Something" on the right side to balance the view, even another crane in the distance, it would work OK but nothing but blue just doesn't do it for me. I could paste something there but I don't want to do that either.
 
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.

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.
 
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.

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.

Wow! That's amazing! I have never seen one even passing through here--but with all those cranes just a little ways south, seems like one of them would fly through now and then. I wonder exactly what their migration route is--do you remember seeing that anywhere?
 

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