​Last December, Mike Ayling became the seventh recipient of Birds Georgia’s annual Scottie Johnson Spirit Award – given to outstanding volunteers – but the first who is involved with the organization’s Photographers Network.

Mike says he first got serious about bird photography when he realized that taking pictures of them would help in identifications and that he could share them with his father, a longtime birder who has been involved with a nature center in Mike’s hometown, Tulsa, Okla., for decades. “It becomes a very exciting thing and a very social thing as well, to see people, to see what they’re seeing,” he said.

“Some of the people who are in the Photographers Network are incredibly experienced and talented photographers. I just want to get a picture of a bird that I’m happy with, and I think I’m happiest with the pictures I get that are of the essence of the bird,” he said. “Every now and then, I find that I get a photograph (that says), ‘That is that bird to me.’”

The Photographers Network is made up of more than 70 volunteer photographers who contribute images that support Birds Georgia’s mission and programs. The staff draws upon them for pictures to be used on the Birds Georgia website, the Georgia Birding Trail, social media content (Instagram, Facebook, etc.), email newsletters, educational materials, and print publications and promotional materials. Photographers submit pictures they particularly like, but sometimes the staff also seeks specific images.

Mike has also been involved in Project Safe Flight, Birds Georgia’s effort to understand the issue of bird/building collisions in metro Atlanta, Brunswick, and Savannah and what can be done to mitigate the problem. Volunteers get up very early in the morning to walk a particular route to check for dead birds that have collided with buildings overnight.

Alarmed when he heard that the nation has lost billions of birds in recent years, Mike notes there are three main causes for this: loss of habitat, roaming outdoor cats, and building collisions. The first two are hard to tackle, but he noted that his children’s school, Drew Charter School in east Atlanta, which is about 10 years old, is a giant wall of reflective glass with trees all around it. After his children and others told him of dead birds, he got permission from the school and started monitoring it. After three years, he has collected 170-180 birds.

“For me, this becomes an opportunity to move the needle on awareness, both for the kids at the school and the city of Atlanta and for the parents at the school, and maybe actually have the opportunity to do something about it in a meaningful way,” he said. In the year just completed, he was able to convince the school to weave his experiences into the school’s curriculum. Ultimately, they hope to make the building more bird-friendly. 

Mike’s day job is with Newfold, a conglomerate of many posting brands that specializes in domain registration and web posting. Mike has lived his entire life in Tulsa and Atlanta except for his freshman year of college in Durango, Colo. He’s been in Atlanta since 1994 and graduated from Oglethorpe University with a major in philosophy. He and his wife, Lori, have two children, Michelle, who recently graduated from high school and plans to attend Mercer University, and Lucas, who is a rising high school junior. 

Mike is especially proud of his Victorian home in the Kirkwood neighborhood and has done extensive research on its history and that of the neighborhood, going so far as giving a lecture at the DeKalb History Center. Mike and the city of Atlanta haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on his efforts to provide a nature-friendly yard, but that’s a story perhaps best left for another day. 

Birds Georgia has been awarded a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) through its Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program to restore 23 acres of habitat at the Cochran Shoals Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNA), enhancing one of metro Atlanta’s most vital wildlife corridors.

Birds Georgia and partners, with funding support from Southern Company, will restore 4 acres of meadow and 19 acres of riparian forest and wetland currently impacted by invasive species and non-native vegetation. Building on 16.5 acres of previous restoration work completed in 2025 – funded by a Bill Terrell Avian Conservation Grant from the Georgia Ornithological Society – this new phase expands efforts to an additional 6.5 acres, creating a more resilient and connected habitat for birds, pollinators, and other wildlife.

“This project represents a major step forward in restoring one of the most important migratory corridors in our region,” said Gabe Andrle, director of conservation at Birds Georgia. “By improving habitat quality and increasing native biodiversity, we’re not only supporting birds and wildlife, but improving the health of the entire Chattahoochee River watershed.”

Once used for agriculture and recreation, parts of the Cochran Shoals landscape have become dominated by invasive plants and woody encroachment, reducing native plant diversity and limiting habitat for insects and birds. This project will reverse those impacts through invasive species removal, native plant installation, and ongoing habitat management.

The restoration effort comes at a critical time for bird conservation. Studies show North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970, including a 53% decline in grassland species and a 28% decline in migratory birds overall. Cochran Shoals provides important habitat for high-priority species identified in Georgia’s State Wildlife Action Plan, including the Grasshopper Sparrow and Henslow’s Sparrow, as well as other focal species such as the Wood Thrush, Prothonotary Warbler, and Rusty Blackbird.

In addition to ecological restoration, the project emphasizes community engagement and education. Birds Georgia and its partners will host volunteer workdays, bird walks, and interpretive programs, reaching an estimated 300 community members and engaging at least 160 volunteers in hands-on conservation activities. Monitoring efforts will include community science data collected through eBird as well as advanced acoustic monitoring technology.

The project is a collaborative effort involving five key partners: the Georgia Native Plant Society, National Park Service, Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, and the Georgia Tech Birdwatchers Club. Together, these organizations will leverage their expertise and networks to advance habitat restoration, expand community outreach, and build long-term stewardship capacity.

This is the eighth award that Birds Georgia has received from The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program, which seeks to develop community capacity to sustain local natural resources for future generations by providing financial assistance to local partnerships. Projects focus on restoration of wetland, forest, riparian and coastal habitats; stormwater management; outreach and stewardship, with a particular focus on water quality; watersheds; and the habitats they support.

​The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration grant program is sponsored by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) with major funding provided by U.S Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, FedEx, Southern Company, and UBS Optimus Foundation.

People aren’t the only ones who love a spring vacation to the barrier islands and sandy beaches of coastal Georgia. Shorebirds, small long-legged birds such as sandpipers and plovers often use our beaches as a “stop-over” site (area where they refuel on their long-distance migration journey). Upwards of 300,000 shorebirds will visit the Georgia coastline each spring, most of which are traveling here from South America. Many spend about 1-3 months here, utilizing our remote and protected foraging sites, however, their journey doesn’t stop here. These birds will continue north, sometimes flying several days without another stop until they reach their breeding grounds above the Arctic Circle. Red Knots will fly a straight-line distance of over 9,000 miles from the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego to High Arctic Canada! 

​As if the sheer distance of these migrations isn’t impressive enough, shorebirds may complete their journey with as few as 3-4 spring stops along the entire flyway. With so many miles of coast and so few stops along the way, you may be asking yourself “why Georgia”? The answer is complicated but the main attraction is horseshoe crab eggs. The horseshoe crab, a species of marine arthropod, spawns on the Atlantic Coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. In the spring when the waters of the Atlantic warm they come into shallow water to spawn and lay their eggs in the sand or mud of coastal marshes and beaches. This creates a buffet for shorebirds like the Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone, and Semi-palmated Sandpiper.
​

Another spring has passed this year and our shorebirds are on their Arctic breeding grounds, incubating the next generation of long-distance flyers. Although these birds spend relatively short periods of time on our coast, the time they do spend here is critically important. Next spring, consider lending a helping hand to our champion migrators. You can help by flipping over-turned horseshoe crabs on beaches and help them back into the water, reporting horseshoe crab spawning sites, keeping dogs on leash or off the beach during this time, volunteering for shorebird counts, or by spreading the word of this symbiotic relationship between arthropod and bird. You can follow the movements of Red Knots tagged in the Southeast at this link: https://www.scshorebirdproject.com/redknotracking

By Sarah Cantwell, Coastal Conservation Coordinator ​

If the Southeastern American Kestrel isn’t a bird you often think about or are even familiar with, that might be about to change.

Birds Georgia is introducing a Georgia Birding Trail of premier birding sites throughout the state and has chosen this bird, an iconic cavity-nesting species that is a subspecies of the American Kestrel, to adorn its logo. An Atlanta-based firm, Radical Designs, came up with the artwork that will be used in Georgia Birding Trail signage, stickers, and patches.

The SEAK, an unofficial name for this bird, is a non-migratory resident across the Southeast, particularly in Florida, and usually requires open, fire-maintained sandhills, savannahs, and grasslands. The Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida says they can sometimes be found in pastures and open fields near residential areas as well.

According to Brooke Michael, Birds Georgia’s communications coordinator: “They are
declining due to habitat loss, habitat mismanagement, and a loss of natural nest sites. You can find kestrels throughout the state by exploring in the right habitat and keeping your eye to the sky, and several of our Georgia Birding Trail sites will be in kestrel habitat.”

As for the bird itself, it is the smallest falcon in the United States – about the size of a
Mourning Dove. It measures 7 to 8 inches long with a wingspan of 16½ to 18 inches,
about one-quarter smaller than its cousin, the American Kestrel. The male has blue-
gray wings and a rusty back, a blue-gray crown with a small, rusty “cap,” no spots on its
breast, and only a few on its belly. The female is larger and has a more uniformly rufous
back and wings and more breast streaking. Both sexes have a black-and-white facial
pattern with perpendicular lines extending below the eye and a black band on a rufous
tail. Their alarm call, given in flight, is “killy, killy, killy.”

The breeding season in Georgia begins in late March or April when the male escorts the
female to potential nest sites within his territory. This bird traditionally uses a tree cavity,
usually an abandoned woodpecker home, but will also move into a nest box or the
hollow cross-member pipes on power poles, where they often displace European
Starlings.

The kestrels are insulated from excessive heat in the metal pipes by the nesting
material the starlings brought in, allowing them to incubate eggs and rear young in
these structures. Unfortunately, when older structures are replaced, the new ones often
don’t have any hollow cross arms, robbing the bird of a place to nest. The power
companies have sometimes mitigated this by providing nesting boxes, however. Mostly the female will incubate four to six white to pale brown eggs, spotted with brown and
gray, for 29 to 30 days, and both parents raise the young.

As for its feeding habits, the SEAK typically swoops from a perch on a tree, post or
power line to grab insects and lizards. It also eats small rodents, birds and other
reptiles.

Some of the current sites on the birding trail that have the kestrels as a "featured bird" include Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, Clybel Wildlife Management Area,
also in Mansfield, Di-Lane Wildlife Management Area in Waynesboro, Euchee Creek
Greenway in Grovetown, E.L. Huie Ponds in Clayton County, Shamrock and Blalock
Reservoirs and Recreation Area in Jonesboro, and Phinizy Swamp Nature Park in
Augusta. Many more Georgia Birding Trail sites will be added in the coming months that will also feature kestrels.

By Steve Phenicie, writer and Birds Georgia member

This spring, Birds Georgia joined Westminster Schools in celebrating the opening of Kingfisher Pond Reserve, a two-acre habitat restoration area that demonstrates how even overlooked spaces can become thriving habitat for birds and people.

What was once a conventional retention pond used to store water for athletic field irrigation is now an outdoor classroom, birding hotspot, and community gathering space.

The project began with a vision from Westminster teacher Clark Meyer and his eighth-grade Meet the Wild elective course, and grew through a Glenn Faculty Grant and a collaborative partnership between students, faculty, facilities staff, and Birds Georgia. Since conversations first began in 2024, the goal has been to create a healthier, more biodiverse landscape while giving students meaningful, hands-on conservation experiences.

When Birds Georgia first visited the site, the area was dominated by closely mowed, non-native turf grasses. Over the past three semesters, Birds Georgia staff worked alongside students to improve the habitat through the selective removal of invasive species and the planting of native grasses, sedges, and wildflowers. Species such as purpletop, broomsedge, and Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) are already increasing plant diversity and supporting the insects that birds depend on.

The wildlife response has been immediate. Great Blue Herons, sparrows, warblers, and Red-shouldered Hawks have all been observed using the habitat, and the site has been added as a vital spot during the annual Atlanta Christmas Bird Count. The reserve has also become a valuable resource for students participating in Georgia's Youth Birding Competition.

Beyond the birds, Kingfisher Pond Reserve has become a place for discovery, learning, and connection. By bringing habitat restoration directly onto campus, students can see firsthand how native plants support wildlife and how conservation action can create measurable change. The project is also helping cultivate the next generation of conservationists by connecting students to the natural world in their own backyard.

Kingfisher Pond Reserve is a powerful example of what can happen when schools invest in habitat restoration. Retention ponds and other underutilized green spaces exist on campuses across Georgia, and with native plants, community support, and a shared vision, they can become thriving habitat that benefits wildlife while enriching the lives of the people who share those spaces.

At Birds Georgia, we believe conservation starts close to home. The transformation of Kingfisher Pond shows how restoring habitat in everyday places can create lasting benefits for birds, inspire community stewardship, and help build a future where birds and people thrive.

by Sheridan Alford

Each spring, Georgia Bird Fest brings people together through a shared appreciation for birds, nature, and community. This year, our Centennial celebration was no exception. From mountaintop hikes to coastal paddles, art showcases to conservation conversations, Bird Fest 2026 was a true reflection of how far this community has come and where we’re headed next.

A Month of Birds, Community, and Discovery
Over the course of the festival, 40 events took place across the state, offering something for every level of birder and nature enthusiast. Participants explored Georgia’s diverse landscapes through guided field trips, including birding by boat, canoe, and kayak; overnight hikes; and visits to habitat restoration sites.

We were proud to collaborate with incredible partners like Georgia Rivers, the Trust for Public Land, the Georgia Native Plant Society, Jekyll Island Authority, and Ocmulgee Audubon Society to expand opportunities for people to engage with birds and conservation in meaningful, place-based ways. We also celebrated alongside the Atlanta History Center in their own Centennial year, marking a unique moment of shared legacy.

From artist talks and creative showcases to hands-on conservation experiences, this year’s Bird Fest highlighted the many ways people connect with birds and with each other.

The Summit: A Day to Gather and Reflect
Our Bird Fest Summit, held at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, was a standout moment of the festival. Set against a vibrant spring backdrop, the day brought together birders, artists, conservationists, and curious newcomers for a shared experience rooted in learning and connection.

Throughout the day, speakers offered a wide range of perspectives that deepened our understanding of birds and the communities that surround them.

• Giff Beaton explored the rich history of birding in Georgia
• Susan Berthelot, Don Kopanoff, and Mahdi Woodard shared insights into the art and sport of bird photography
• Dr. Michelle Moyer reminded us of the importance of slowing down and truly listening to birdsong
• Alex Troutman spoke on diversity and representation in the birding experience
• And George Armistead delivered a keynote, Walk with Me, that was both thoughtful and engaging

Beyond the stage, the Summit buzzed with creativity. Artists Chantelle Chapman and Raven Waters showcased their work, while Eagle Eye Book Shop and Wild Birds Unlimited offered books and birding gear for attendees to explore. We also shared a preview of an upcoming limited-edition illustrated playing card deck, an exciting glimpse at what’s ahead.

Our partners were present in full force, providing tangible ways for attendees to stay engaged in conservation efforts across Georgia.

Why It Matters
As one of our largest annual events, Georgia Bird Fest plays a vital role in supporting Birds Georgia’s conservation, education, and community engagement work. Every field trip, workshop, and conversation helps build momentum toward a future where both birds and people can thrive.

A theme that carried throughout the Summit, and the festival as a whole, was the strength of this community. In his remarks, Executive Director Adam Betuel reflected on the wonder of spring migration: that birds, many weighing less than a cellphone, undertake extraordinary journeys each year. It’s a reminder of both the resilience of these species and the importance of protecting the habitats they depend on.

Looking Ahead
We’re deeply grateful to everyone who participated in Georgia Bird Fest 2026, whether you joined us for a single hike or followed along for the entire month. A special thank you goes to our Centennial Patrons, whose support makes this work possible and sustains the festival's growth year after year.

Bird Fest is more than a series of events; it’s a community in flight. And if this year is any indication, the future is full of possibilities.

Birds Georgia is proud to announce the newest site enrolled in our Habitat Stewardship Program: the Chick-fil-A Support Center.

Spanning more than 70 wooded acres, the Chick-fil-A Support Center is an ArbNet-certified arboretum and serves as the company’s headquarters. The campus features extensive botanical gardens, walking trails, streams, ponds, and specialized tree collections, all designed to foster a “work full of life” environment.

As part of maintaining both native and curated plantings, the site incorporates native trees such as magnolia, oak, and pine, along with native shrubs and wildflowers that provide valuable habitat for birds and other wildlife. Plans are also underway to install and maintain bird and bat boxes to further support native species.

The Birds Georgia Habitat Stewardship Program partners with public and private landowners and managers to advance conservation through practical, science-based habitat improvements. The program connects participants with educational resources, technical assistance, cost-share opportunities, and other tools that help make stewardship efforts both impactful and sustainable.

We are delighted to welcome the Chick-fil-A Support Center as a Habitat Steward and applaud their commitment to building places where birds and people thrive.