SCraig
Been spending a lot of time on here!
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2011
- Messages
- 6,474
- Reaction score
- 2,450
- Location
- Nashville, TN
- Website
- sc-photo-tn.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
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.
This area stretched a long distance either side of this shot, and was literally covered with Sandhill Cranes
The birds started flying in from somewhere off to our right, and this long stream of them just kept coming and coming.
These are at the close edge of the water, but "Close" is relative .....
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.
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.
This area stretched a long distance either side of this shot, and was literally covered with Sandhill Cranes
The birds started flying in from somewhere off to our right, and this long stream of them just kept coming and coming.
These are at the close edge of the water, but "Close" is relative .....
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.