Some delayed updates for Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge at
Birchwood in Meigs County follow.
Friday, January 15, 2016: The Olin Corporation of
Charleston, TN, provided support for fifth graders from Charleston and
Riceville to visit the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park and the Hiwassee Wildlife
Refuge. At HWR, officials of the TWRA presented a program about wildlife in the
state and demonstrated the skills of one of their K-9 trainers and his dog.
TWRA, Jimmy Wilkerson, Danny Gaddy, Alice Moon, and I furnished spotting scopes
and provided information about the sandhill cranes and ducks that the students
observed. Mrs. Moon located a leucistic sandhill crane that had patches of white
feathers on its back. I presented a Power Point based discussion of
cranes seen at the refuge.
Saturday, 1/16/16: Mrs. Mime Barnes, Chairperson for
the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival, used volunteer students from the
Wildlife Society at Cleveland State Community College to maintain posters at
the festival listing the birds seen at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge viewing
area and at the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park observation deck. The students
regularly sent text or email photos of the posters to the festival headquarters
at the Birchwood Community Center and to the other viewing site so that all
visitors could know what birds were being seen and where. I spent Saturday and
Sunday afternoon at the CRMP locating and identifying the birds. The CSCC
students also located and identified some birds on their own. I think that Mrs.
Barnes’ idea to add this feature to the festival was a great idea. In addition
to hundreds of sandhill cranes and mallards, several bald eagles were noted.
Other highlights were ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets, pine and
yellow-rumped warblers, a few American white pelicans, a red-breasted
merganser, 8 great egrets, and a winter wren.
Sunday, 1/17/16: Around 30 American white pelicans
were in view from the CRMP for most of the afternoon, as were adult and
immature bald eagles. One adult bald eagle was seen for a brief time on a nest
on Hiwassee Island on the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016: I counted forty-four
American white pelicans in the morning from the CRMP overlook. The largest
number of sandhill cranes that I’ve seen so far this season was present,
particularly as seen from the CRMP at roost time when the cranes were gathered
near
and on Hiwassee Island. Very large numbers of mallards were noted around H.
Island. The highlight of the day, however, was the appearance of one whooping
crane on the refuge. If I am interpreting statements from
http://www.bringbackthecranes.org/what2do.html
correctly, then the appearance of this whooping crane may be reported on this
page only because it was seen on one of eight “approved” refuge sites in the
U.S. Otherwise, only the county in which a whooping crane was seen may be
reported. This policy is designed to help protect the safety of these rare
birds as well as to prevent the birds from becoming too familiar with humans.
If you see a whooping crane, you are encouraged to report the bird to the
appropriate authorities at:
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/whoopingcrane/sightings/sightingform.cfm
IF you see a whooping crane in SE Tennessee, it would also be helpful to me as
a volunteer whooping crane tracker for the International Crane Foundation if
you would send me a private message. You can use my email address from this
post.
Charles MurrayBirchwood, TN
