Hey Tweets,

I returned to TN for the holidays to visit my family and learned from my
dad that a Hooded Crane had just shown up at the Hiawassee refuge in TN and
was hanging out with a flock of several thousand Sandhill Cranes and
several Whooping Cranes. To my knowledge in the past years, one of these
birds showed up in Idaho and perhaps one in Nebraska, but I don't know what
the records committees had to say about those sightings. I also don't know
whether this bird will be considered a wild bird or not, but there are sure
a lot of people coming to see it. With several records now over the past
several years, perhaps this bird will be added to the US records
officially.....

I myself took the two hour drive from my home yesterday and got great looks
at the Hooded Crane, 3 Whooping Cranes, and the large flock of Sandhills
that frequent the refuge at this time of year. It is a beautiful bird with
an all-dark body, white head, and red eye, and is smaller than the other
cranes (apparently one of the smallest cranes worldwide).

Anyway, I know most of you won't be in the area, but if anyone is heading
to the southeast for the holidays it might be worth a side trip if you love
cranes. For more information, see the TN regional postings or email me for
directions. You could always fly to TN, see 3 crane species, and then hit
up the Ross's Gull in the Okanogan for a nice cherry on top of your bird
sundae!

Happy holidays. May wondrous rarities present themselves before you.

-Nathaniel Peters
ncpeters at uw.edu
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