I heard the most interesting sound while walking to my car this afternoon,

[Critters2]

and looked up to see a flock of sandhill cranes overhead. Beautiful!! Wish I'd had a camera! I thought I was too far east for sandhills, but there they were. Just amazing!!


This isn't my video, but it gives you some sense of what I saw--and heard. But the flock I saw was larger and flying lower to the ground.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/huge-flock-of-sandhill-cranes-part-2/532231713

I miss my birding club!

[Wcross]

1. You are a bird person, I have a great one for you.

I was working out in the yard one day and all my dogs were with me. They ALWAYS bark at the bigger birds including hawks & eagles. The elder female had lost pups to birds in the past (related to me by the person who had to give her up). They all really react to large birds. I look up and a pair of blue herons coast by at a low altitude (under 40 ft agl) and all the dogs looked at them but had no negative reaction.

I have a question for you as a birder. What type of large bird will sit on the top of a dead tree or pole & spread out its wings. He/she almost looks like a bird the native Americans used to put on the top of totem poles. The bird will sit there for quite a while with its wings spread wide.

[Critters2]

2. Long-legged, like a heron; or more like a raptor, a hawk or eagle?

And what color?

On edit: This site might be helpful: http://www.whatbird.com/browse/objs/All/birds_na_147/38/Location/6428/Tennessee


Btw, for my money, Great blue herons are the most beautiful bird in the world. Simply breathtaking!!

[Wcross]

4. Definatly a raptor or vulture type of bird, brown in color.

Beautiful birds, blue herons. I had noticed one wading in a stream 5 or six miles away about a month before I saw the pair fly over. Did I mention the resident owl? Cool guy, I hear him hooting in the woods almost every night.

[Critters2]

5. I have a great horned owl--maybe a pair--in my front yard tree.

I've never seen him/them, but I hear them hooting most nights.

[Critters2]

6. As someone else suggested, could be a cormorant,

another impressive bird. Or maybe a hawk. There are several species of hawk. Maybe even a golden eagle or a young bald eagle. Wish I could see to be more certain.

[Wcross]

7. My Mom snapped a photo when she visited, I will e-mail her & ask for it.

I've seen it many times here in Tennessee. In Tennessee as in it couldn't have been a cormorant.

[Critters2]

8. I'm heading for bed, but feel free to PM me, or kick this thread

when you get a pic. I'm curious now.

Have a good night! :hi:

[blockhead]

3. this would be my guess

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/1087/overview/Great_Cormorant.aspx

[RushIsRot]

9. What you are describing sounds like the behavior of an anhinga as well.

They look a lot like cormorants, but their beak is pointed rather than hooked.