When the end of October rolls around, nature starts setting up well in advance of the best winter festival in Alabama — the Festival of the Cranes in Decatur. That's when anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 migrating sandhill cranes and several pairs of endangered whooping cranes start arriving at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.
Rest assured the refuge's team of volunteers has been preparing even longer. The three-day festival is held in mid-January each year when the number of birds reaches a peak. Planning tip: The 2024 Festival of the Cranes is set for January 12-14.
The cranes camp out through February and you are welcome to visit any time. Yet, don't miss the festival if you want the full experience.
The refuge goes back to 1938 when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service established it specifically to attract migratory birds. Since then, it has welcomed sandhill cranes along with many types of ducks, geese, and other seasonal guests.
Interestingly, the endangered whooping cranes didn’t start visiting until around 2004. In the early 2000s, conservationists introduced a population of whooping cranes in Wisconsin with the intent of them wintering in Florida. In a nutshell, over the years a handful of pairs chose to stick around Decatur instead of flying further south. We now get six to eight pairs with the occasional juvenile in tow. You do not have to be an experienced birder to spot them. They're bigger than the others and brilliant white – unless they're young, and we'll get to that.
Adding some dazzle to the 2024 festival are multiple new and freshened-up facilities at the refuge. In December 2023, the visitor center reopened as the final piece of a $5.4 million improvement plan. Earlier projects part of the plan included a new trail, a photography blind, and renovations to the observation building, which is a short walk from the visitor center.
The two-story observation building is close to where the birds tend to cluster and has multiple viewing areas with mounted binoculars. Bring your own pair to make sure you get all the views you want when it's busy. While the building has a hushed vibe, it's not quite as quiet as a library. Overheard conversations are gold. If you're lucky, you'll be there at a time with fellow visitors who know the whooping cranes by name. Listen up, and you'll get the scoop on the new juvenile with rust-tipped feathers hanging out near its parents or the "teen" who arrived ahead of their folks this year to scope out the scene.
A woman overheard me asking a friend about the juvenile whooper, and she directed me to her husband, a knowledgeable, local nature lover. He answered my question expertly. She also recommended I pop into the renovated visitor center to watch the new, 15-minute film that loops in the auditorium during regular hours. As it turned out, her hubs wrote the beautiful script.
The new exhibits at the visitor center are delightful and showcase the refuge's habitats and inhabitants, from the waterfowl to river otters. As for the new film, the auditorium's enhanced tech does it the justice it deserves. The narration is thoughtful and the imagery breathtaking, offering intimate perspectives of the refuge in all seasons and times of day.
It may inspire you to get some views of your own on the half-mile Atkeson Cypress Trail. It's just to the left of the visitor center and boardwalk to the new photography blind. It's a pretty trail of crushed gravel and tidy boardwalks over swamps that give rise to soaring bald cypress trees.
So what's so special about the festival? It's like what happened with the conversation in the observation building, times 100 or more. Experienced birders and nature newbies all come together to socialize, see the birds, share knowledge, and enjoy expert presentations and demonstrations. There's even a concert to kick things off Friday night at the city's historic Princess Theatre. Over a dozen activities continue Saturday and Sunday at the visitor center and downtown at the Princess and the Alabama Center for Performing Arts.
Best tip? Don't go and be a wallflower. Ask questions and have conversations. Volunteers, amateurs, and pro naturalists alike are eager to share their love for this Alabama treasure. If the birds could talk, they'd be as enthusiastic. It might even explain why those whooping cranes introduced 20 years ago rethought their predicted migration to stay at Wheeler instead.
If you'd like to take a longer nature hike than the Atkeson Cypress Trail next to the visitor center, check out the new, 4.6-mile Wheeler Hiking and Biking Trail, which can be accessed just southeast of the visitor center entrance off Highway 67.
You can find the full 2024 schedule of festival weekend events, bios on the presenters and other special guests, parking, and shuttle info on the Festival of Cranes event landing page. Learn more about Friends of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and its programs throughout the year on the organization's website. Follow Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Complex on Facebook for the latest news.
We think you'll be beyond impressed with the new exhibits at Wheeler Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, not to mention the thousands of cranes and other wildlife that welcome you. Have you attended the annual Festival of the Cranes in Decatur, Alabama? Let us know about your experience and any advice for folks who plan to attend for the first time.
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