Displaying items by tag: bird identification

During winter migration, visitors to Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge can view thousands of greater sandhill cranes.  Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency via Appalachian Voices

Beyond festivals, sandhill cranes pass through Southeast in increasing numbers

BIRCHWOOD — Every year in mid-January, a few thousand people gather here for The Sandhill Crane Festival because the cranes have returned. The community center at Birchwood is filled with vendors selling wildlife art or promoting conservation. The nearby Cherokee Removal Memorial at Blythe Ferry offers a chance to celebrate Cherokee culture and learn the story of indigenous people who were taken from their homes and sent on a long journey to Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, there are opportunities to see and appreciate these amazing birds through February in East Tennessee and beyond.

At least 20,000 cranes gather or pass through Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, having come from their nesting grounds in southern Canada and the upper Midwest to winter here in the American South. Many spend the winter there, but some will continue southward to Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and the Gulf Coast.

Chattanooga Audubon Society

CHATTANOOGA — Birds of a feather are called to flock together this week at Chattanooga Audubon Society’s Avian Discovery Days April 5-7. This is the third year of this event at the Audubon Acres sanctuary, and reservations are required.

Call (423) 892-1499 or check out Avian Discovery Days for more information.

Participants will learn about birds during four activities, including bird walks specifically designed to teach identification skills. They will also learn how birds survive migration in the Great Migration Challenge game.