These sorts of things often have to remain in limbo until a pattern of vagrancy either is or is not established in the future (over many decades, sometimes). This would make the third record in North America. Three things to remember: (a) Leg bands can be lost, (b) cranes are long-lived, so some of those 2001 escapees (three in Idaho I believe) could still be out there, and (c) any wild bird can conceivably turn up anywhere at any time. This is especially true of long-distance migrants like cranes. It is possible to imagine an overshoot or lost juvenile winding up in Siberia and then crossing over to North America. It would still have a long way to go, though, before it met up with the Hiwassee cranes even on their nesting grounds!
Countability aside, the bird is the bird and is just as beautiful no matter how it got to Tennessee.
Bill Pulliam Hohenwald TN
On Dec 14, 2011, at 10:35 AM, Chris Sloan wrote:Scott is tied up but has looked at the pics and forwarded them to me. It's definitely a Hooded Crane. This will be an interesting debate as to its origins. There is only one previous report from the ABA area, of one in Carey, Idaho in April 2010. So far as I can tell, ABA checklist committee has not acted on it and I cannot tell what, if anything, Idaho was done. Captive birds are typically leg banded and the Idaho bird was not. There is also some chance that this bird at Hiwassee is the same bird.Chris Sloan Nashville, TN http://www.chrissloanphotography.comOn Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 10:14 AM, Charles Murray <dro_1945@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Yesterday, Marie Sutton and Phyllis Deal from Lexington, KY spotted a strange crane at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge from the gazebo in Meigs Co. I arrived on the scene and called Jen Davis, ICF crane tracker. She arrived, took some digiscope photos and took the following notes on the 'mystery bird.'Crane Description:Smaller than a Sandhill. A shorter beak than the Canadian Sandhills on the HWR. Makes a higher pitched call, and is not the same sound. Black body with long tertial feathers. White Neck. Red cap. Black around the eyes.Jen contacted Bryant Tarr, crane curator at ICF. He believes the crane is a hooded crane. Jen has sent this description and some photos to Scott Somershoe.Charles Murray Birchwood, TN
