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Now this is a bird worth seeing!  Get yourself to Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Meigs County, Tennessee!

The nights are getting warmer……. Our daily forecast does not change much all year-sunny and 32c. However, the nights are getting warmer! Our minimum is suddenly 25c and the humidity is going up…soon we will be hearing “sunny and 32c with a chance of an afternoon shower”. They are even teasing us that it may happen [...]

SeaWorld and similar attractions that serve up cetacean entertainment to the masses don’t do that much for me. However, many of the professionals who work at places like these exhibit enormous compassion for animals. Two recent non-marine examples both include Sandhill Cranes. First, an adult Sandhill Crane with a rubber gasket around his bill was brought [...]

The massive flocks of Sandhill Cranes that stop over in Nebraska on their way north are becoming a bigger and bigger tourist attraction.  Tourists are so attracted to the cranes that the roads can actually become dangerous: The biggest worry for area residents and police are bird watchers who may pay too much attention to [...]

Whooping crane reintroduction efforts on the Eastern Flyway involve raising young whooping cranes and accompanying them on their migratory flights with ultralight gliders. The USFWS designated the whooping cranes in this population “nonessential and experimental.”  So, one might surmise, it’s OK if they get shot by hunters thinking they’re sandhill cranes? It gives one to [...]

ACTION ALERT!  Tomorrow, MARCH 15, 2011, is the deadline for public comment on a proposal to hunt sandhill cranes in Kentucky. If you wrote to Tennessee in the  10,000 Birds campaign this winter, you can cut and paste your letter, changing “Tennessee” to “Kentucky.” If not, please read my letter, crib bits of it in [...]

Add one critically endangered Whooping Crane found dead of gunshots in Alabama late last month to the three gunned down in Georgia in December.  The four killed this winter are a full 1% of the world population of the iconic and vulnerable bird.  Here’s hoping the culprits are found and brought to justice.

When one thinks of Western New York, seabirds don’t immediately spring to mind. However, terns, sandpipers, plovers, and the like don’t mind drifting hundreds of miles from the seashore, particularly to lands rich with lakes. The corridor between Rochester and Syracuse apparently suits shorebirds just fine since Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is renowned for its [...]

The Blue Crane Grus paradisea is truly a magnificent creature and worthy of being South Africa’s national bird.  It is also known as the Stanley Crane ,the Paradise Crane and some taxonomies consider its scientific name Anthropoides paradiseus.  Sadly, because of its small and declining population BirdLife International classifies the Blue Crane as Vulnerable. A dancing Blue [...]