By Katie Jackson
Back in the early 1990s, a small group of snowbirds on their way south for the winter made a rest stop at Decatur’s Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and ended up staying for the entire season. Word of this new-found overwintering wonderland apparently spread because today it’s a favorite destination for thousands of seasonal migrants.
These “snowbirds” are of the avian, rather than human, variety — migratory sandhill and whooping cranes that spend summers in the Great Lakes region and northern Canada and fly south to warmer climes in the winter. Traditionally, they overwintered in southern Georgia and northern Florida, but that began to shift northward when, in 1992, three sandhill cranes made WNWR their winter home. Over the next several years, more sandhills joined them, and the seasonal population grew to some 500 cranes in 2005, including several endangered whooping cranes that began arriving the year before.
Today between 10,000 to 30,000 sandhill cranes and 20-25 whooping cranes sojourn at the WNWR each winter to take advantage of all the 35,000-acre refuge has to offer. Located along the Tennessee River above Wheeler Dam, the WNWR was established in 1938 to provide wintering and breeding habitat for ducks, geese and other migratory birds and wildlife. Much of the area is drained in the summer to control mosquitos and reflooded in the winter, which WNWR park ranger David Young says is ideal winter habitat for the cranes.
“The Decatur area has all the ingredients they need: lots of water and (fallow) farm fields where the birds can feed in the daytime and then move to the mudflats of the Tennessee River and its tributaries at night,” he says.
The cranes begin arriving in mid-November and stay until early to mid-February forming huge gatherings of gray-feathered sandhills punctuated by bright white whooping cranes. Both species are long-legged and statuesque (four to five feet in height) with impressive five- to seven-foot wingspans.
They are also boisterous birds, communicating with one another through an array of burbles, purrs, rattles, snores, hisses, honks and their species-specific calls — sandhills make bugling sounds while whooping cranes, true to their name, “whoop” — that can be heard up to 2.5 miles away. And they are famously elegant and exuberant dancers, performing a series of bows, bobs, wing-flaps, stick tosses and spectacular leaps (six to eight feet high) during courtship rituals but also year-round.
These large flocks (sometimes called sedges) are a sight to see and hear and the WNWR is an ideal place to do both. The refuge’s two-story observation building, a temperature-controlled facility located near the visitor’s center — and just three miles off Interstate 65 — offers exceptional views of the cranes and the many ducks, geese and other migratory birds that spend winters there.
Conservation and raising awareness
The refuge is also a go-to destination for thousands of human visitors who flock there to view the cranes, which inspired the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge Association, a “friends of” group of volunteers, to create the Festival of the Cranes in 2012.
The WWRA works to conserve and raise awareness of the many natural and cultural wonders found at WNWR, which according to the organization’s president, Mary Ratliff, are remarkable.
“To me, it’s one of the most important natural resources in the area,” she says. “It’s like having a 35,000-acre personal park right in the middle of two cities (Huntsville and Decatur).”
“It’s kind of a hidden treasure up here,” Young says. “We’ve had folks who have lived up here for decades who aren’t aware of it.”
“We (the WWRA) wanted to bring awareness to the fact that this is something really special and we should take care of it,” Ratliff says. And the Festival of the Cranes has done just that, so much so that what began as an event hosted at the refuge’s visitor’s center has grown into a community-wide collaboration and celebration.
“It grew so fast that we couldn’t handle the people,” Ratliff says, so she and other volunteers began looking for partners in the community to help support and expand the festival. With the help of her local state senator, Arthur Orr, and cooperation of many other local, state and federal people and organizations, the event has become what Ratliff describes as “a model for collaborating and communicating with one another.”
Last year the festival drew some 6,000 attendees and, like the crane population, seems to be growing each year.
This year’s festival, to be held Jan. 10-12, offers an array of cultural and educational programs for all ages at sites across Decatur including the historic Princess Theater, Alabama Center for the Arts, Carnegie Visual Arts Center, Cook Museum of Natural Science and Decatur Public Library.
Among the programs are children’s activities, art shows and demonstrations and an array of presentations on topics ranging from crane conservation, falconry and raptors to reptiles, bats, ecotourism and Alabama cave life. (The WNWR manages a complex of properties including three north Alabama caves that are homes to protected bat species and the endangered Alabama cavefish).
Entertainment is also on the agenda including shows featuring storyteller and naturalist Brian “Fox” Ellis, who will perform as John James Audubon, and “Thank You, Rachel,” a play about Rachel Carson, both of which will run all weekend.
Experts on hand
Back at the refuge, hours at the visitor center and observation building are expanded throughout crane season (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Naturalists will be on hand during the festival to share information about the cranes and other bird and wildlife species, and expert-led bird walks will be held on the Friday before and Monday following the festival. Throughout the cranes’ season, the refuge offers free guided Whooping Crane Walks most Saturdays starting at 11 a.m. and Waterfowl Wednesdays walks at 8 a.m.
Young also encourages visitors to come see the cranes outside the festival, especially on weekdays, which are usually less crowded. And really any time of year is a great time to visit the refuge, which offers year-round bird watching, kayaking, cycling and hiking opportunities as well as hunting and fishing seasons.
“There’s something to see here all year long,” Young says, noting that the plant and animal life changes with the seasons. “It’s different all the time, especially as the water level changes.”
Ratliff said the cranes are excellent celebrity ambassadors for the refuge and nature, drawing thousands of visitors to the refuge — some 16,000 last year — and combined with the festival will help those visitors discover the region’s many other natural and cultural resources.
“We want to let them know that we have other opportunities here,” she says, many of them driven by the state’s remarkable biodiversity. And that, she hopes, will encourage people to get out in nature and care about these natural places.
More about the WNWR is available at fws.gov/refuge/wheeler and details of the upcoming festival and other WWFA activities are available at friendsofwheelernwr.org and through its Facebook or Instagram accounts.
