[TN-Bird] Re: Cranes and School Children at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge
- From: Charles Murray <dro_1945@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2011 13:28:28 -0800 (PST)
Correction! I think my brain froze today! The field trips were onTuesday and
today.
Charles Murray
Birchwood, TN
________________________________
From: Charles Murray <dro_1945@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 3:51 PM
Subject: Cranes and School Children at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge
The Olin Corporation's branch in Charleston, TN, sponsored school field trips
for approximately 300 fifth-grade students from Charleston, North Meigs,
Riceville, and South Meigs elementary schools to the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge
and the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park in Meigs County on Monday and today. At
HWR the children were able to learn about area wildlife from Tennessee Wildlife
Resources Agency speakers and to see and learn about sandhill cranes and
whooping cranes from crane experts Dr. David Aborn from the University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga and Ms. Jen Davis from the International Crane
Foundation. All the students got to see hundreds of sandhill cranes flying over
and
foraging in the fields at HWR. About three-fourths of the children got
an additional thrill from seeing two juvenile direct autumn release
(DAR) whooping cranes. (Because the children were divided into two
groups at each session, some of the "indoor groups" didn't get to see
the DAR birds since the birds were only in view at certain times during
the field trips.) Volunteers provided spotting scopes and help to enable the
children to get close-up views of the cranes. The volunteers, in addition to
Dr. Aborn and Ms. Davis, were long-time birder Ken Dubke, Rick Houlk from Blue
Moon Cruises, and myself.
Particular thanks to Hale Booth from Olin who coordinated the field trips and
to others from Olin who assisted in planning and facilitating the activities at
the CRMP and at the HWR.
Charles Murray
Birchwood, TN
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