Cranes, Color, and Cabernet Festival
October 17, 2015 @ 12:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Cranes, Color, Cabernet, and Cider Too
The Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Sanctuary (which is Michigan Audubon’s largest sanctuary) came into being 60 years ago. The anniversary will be commemorated at this year’s Cranes, Colors, and Cabernet festival at the sanctuary on Saturday October 17.
Activities celebrating the Greater Sandhill Crane are hosted by both Jackson Audubon Society (JAS) and Sandhill Crane Vineyards as part of the event in northeast Jackson County. During the festival, members of JAS will lead driving tours to see the cranes as they forage for food, and walking tours of the sanctuary trails. The winery will have restaurant specials and provide activities at its location at 4724 Walz Road near Jackson.
The event begins at noon when JAS naturalists lead one-hour walking tours of the 1000-plus-acre Haehnle Sanctuary. The last tour will depart at 2:00 p.m. The tour will take participants to the north side of Mud Lake Marsh, a location rarely visited by humans and a staging area for migrating cranes.
A lecture on the natural history of the Sandhill Crane will be presented at 4:00 p.m. by a Haehnle naturalist. At 4:30 p.m. participants can take part in the “crane caravan tour.” JAS members will lead this carpool tour to the nearby farm fields, providing the opportunity to see the cranes at a closer range than at the sanctuary. The carpool will return to Haehnle at approximately 5:30 p.m., allowing participants to watch the “fly-in,” which is when cranes fly directly overhead as they return to the marsh for the evening. Advance notice of your participation in the caravan tour is requested and can be made by contacting the Michigan Audubon office at 517-580-7364.
Viewing of the cranes returning to their roost will occur at the Sanctuary’s observation hill overlooking Mud Lake Marsh until dusk. Haehnle Sanctuary is located directly across the road from 9011 Seymour Road, northeast of Jackson.
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