Displaying items by tag: hiwassee and tennessee river confluence

Thousands of sandhill cranes winter at the confluence of the Hiwassee and Tennessee rivers in Birchwood, Tennessee. The 35th edition of the Sandhill Crane Festival is set for Jan. 16-17. TWRA

Come watch the cranes and their feathered friends and observe an East Tennessee tradition

Lee Wilmot is statewide information specialist for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

BIRCHWOOD — The 35th Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival is set for Jan. 17-18 at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, Cherokee Removal Memorial Park, and  Birchwood Community Center. The festival celebrates the thousands of sandhill cranes that stop over or spend the winter on or near the refuge. It is also an opportunity to focus attention on the rich heritage of the state and the Native American history of the area.

The free event runs 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day and includes free shuttle transportation from the Birchwood Community Center to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park and the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and parking is available at the Birchwood Baptist Church. Visitors will notice a change this year regarding parking. A parking map can be found on the festival webpage.

Beginning in the early 1990s, the recovering population of eastern sandhill cranes began stopping at the Hiwassee Refuge on their way to and from their wintering grounds in Georgia and Florida. TWRA has been managing the refuge for more than 60 years for waterfowl, and it provides sandhill cranes with a combination of feeding and shallow water roosting habitat. Thousands of birds now spend the entire winter at the confluence of the Hiwassee and Tennessee rivers. The Hiwassee Refuge comprises about 6,000 acres.