I let him know that Joel Volpi and I planned to do the 1989 BBS, and, sure enough, he called me up in late May to ask if he could join us. I explained that the drill might be somewhat boring for them as we could not spend a lot of time at each stop, but he said that he would enjoy birding with us. I faxed the route map for the Secret Service, and made all the other usual arrangements for a BBS.

At 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 10 (1989), a van pulled up to our hotel, and out came Jimmy and Rosalynn ​. The sat in the back of the van, while Joel and I had the middle. The Secret Service guard and driver were in front. Having run the route the day before, they knew every unmarked, back country road by heart. The wore small earphones to communicate with the the guards that trailed us in the backup van a mile behind.

Joel and I learned a lot from the Carters about local and national farming issues and the local lore about birds. Jimmy and Rosalynn ​ pointed out some local plants and picked us some blackberries.

Although Joel and I were at first apprehensive about taking an ex-President and First Lady birding, the experience turned out to be like birding with an eloquent farmer who happened to be very well versed on national issues.

On the birding side, we got a new species for the route - an Anhinga. At the last stop, two Red-tailed Hawks screamed low overhead and gave us all an uplifting end to a BBS day.

by Dottie Head, Director of Communications

Birds Georgia has been awarded a grant from National Fish & Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF) Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program to restore 19 acres of Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve at the historic Wilburn Farm to promote biodiversity and ecosystem resiliency. This is Birds Georgia’s third focal site centered on the South River Watershed in southern DeKalb County.

Birds Georgia will work with a network of regional and statewide organizations, including Georgia Native Plant Society, DeKalb County, Arabia Mountain Heritage Alliance, and the Georgia Conservancy, to remove non-native vegetation from 19-acres of the Wilburn Farm site and install bird-friendly native plants and seed to provide high quality habitat for birds and other species. In collaboration with other partner organizations, Birds Georgia has pledged to engage with at least 100 volunteers and 300 local community members through volunteer projects, bird and wildlife monitoring, and public outreach and education programming.

Wilburn Farm dates back to the late 1800s. The farm was abandoned during the Great Depression in the 1930s, and in 1953 it was purchased by Ross Wilburn, who repaired the house, built a pond, and constructed a horse barn. DeKalb County acquired the property in 2000, and it became part of the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve.
“Historically, Wilburn Farm was used for agriculture and, in recent decades, large portions of the area have been maintained as a partially mowed field dominated by non-native fescue grasses,” says Adam Betuel, Birds Georgia’s director of conservation. “The ecological value of this site has been limited by the presence of non-native grasses that prevent a diversity of native plant species from becoming established to support birds and other wildlife and to protect the watershed from erosion and sedimentation.”

Birds Georgia’s habitat restoration team and volunteers will remove invasive plant species, including Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana), Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense), and Autumn Olive (Eleagnus umbellate), as well as non-native, invasive herbaceous plants such as Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense) and Brazilian verbena (Verbena brasiliensis). After the invasive plants are cleared, Birds Georgia will add native seeds, a diversity of wildflower plugs, and gallon-sized woody, native plants to the space to support and jumpstart the native regeneration of habitat.

The project is located in the South River watershed, a vital yet often overlooked resource in metro Atlanta and further down river. Encompassing approximately 544 square miles, the South River is an important corridor for migratory birds and nesting area for breeding birds and is one of only two rivers in Georgia with an urban origin. Approximately 40 percent of the watershed lies in the southern part of urban DeKalb County. This and other Birds Georgia projects within the watershed serve as a model of bird-friendly habitat and protect South River-adjacent communities from flash flooding and other effects from climate change that are disproportionately impacting communities of color. This is the fifth grant that Birds Georgia has received to complete habitat improvement work in the South River Watershed, including three grants for work at different areas within Panola Mountain State Park, at Lyon Farm, and now at Wilburn Farm.

“We are excited to have the support of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation for this project in the South River Watershed, which is one of Birds Georgia’s priority areas for engagement,” says Betuel. “Wilburn Farm is located near the South River, and our restoration work will directly benefit the larger river corridor that not only provides valuable habitat for birds and other wildlife but also acts as a buffer to protect and enhance the health of this important metro watershed.”

This is the seventh award that Birds Georgia has received from The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program, which seeks to develop nation-wide community stewardship of local natural resources, preserving these resources for future generations and enhancing habitat for local wildlife. Grants seek to address water quality issues in priority watersheds, such as erosion due to unstable streambanks, pollution from stormwater runoff, and degraded shorelines caused by development.

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, FedEx, Southern Company, and SalesForce.

 About Birds Georgia: Birds Georgia is building places where birds and people thrive. We create bird-friendly communities through conservation, education, and community engagement. Founded in 1926 as the Atlanta Bird Club, the organization became a chapter of National Audubon in 1973, and continues as an independent chapter of National Audubon Society. Learn more at https://www.birdsgeorgia.org/.

About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation: Chartered by Congress in 1984, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) protects and restores the nation’s fish, wildlife, plants and habitats. Working with federal, corporate, foundation and individual partners, NFWF has funded more than 21,000 projects and generated a total conservation impact of over $10 billion. NFWF is an equal opportunity provider. Learn more at nfwf.org.

This fall, Birds Georgia continues its ninth year of Project Safe Flight Georgia, a project to study bird-building collisions across the state. Since the program began in 2015, volunteers have collected data from more than 4,400 birds representing 137 different species that perished after colliding with buildings. Last year, Project Safe Flight was extended to coastal Georgia with volunteers patrolling routes in Savannah and Brunswick as well as continuing routes in metro Atlanta.

In spring 2024, Cedar Waxwings were the most commonly found species, followed by Ovenbird, Northern Cardinal, Indigo Bunting, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Mourning Dove, Northern Mockingbird, Black-and-white Warbler, Eastern Towhee, and American Woodcock round out the 10 most commonly collected species by Project Safe Flight volunteers.

The top 10 species collected over the course of Project Safe Flight are: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Tennessee Warbler, Swainson’s Thrush, Cedar Waxwing, Ovenbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Wood Thrush, American Robin, Common Yellowthroat, and Red-eyed Vireo (in descending order).

In general, Atlanta sees fewer collisions in the springtime, as birds take other migratory paths on their way to their breeding grounds. However, we expect to see an increase in collisions in the fall months, as returning migrants and their newly-fledged young take to the skies and head southwards. Atlanta is noted as the fourth deadliest city for birds in the fall, and ninth in the spring, according to a study by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 

There are a number of ways you can help:

• Volunteers are always needed for our Project Safe Flight Patrols, in Atlanta, Dunwoody, Savannah, and Brunswick. You can learn more on our Project Safe Flight website.
• Learn how to make your home safer for migrating birds on our Project Safe Flight website. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for resources.)
• Turn Out the Lights for Birds, during fall and spring migratory periods. You can take the Lights Out Pledge or sign up to receive alerts on nights of peak migration on our Lights Out Georgia page. 
• Learn more or view maps of the nightly collision forecast on our Collision Resources page. 
• Can’t find the time to commit to volunteering with us? You can still contribute valuable data. If you find a dead or injured bird you suspect may have collided with a building, you can make an important contribution to Project Safe Flight by reporting it through d-Bird.
  
  

This September, Birds Georgia will celebrate the Fall Flyway Festival with a host of in-person and virtual events to celebrate native plants and the key role they play for birds and other wildlife. The month-long celebration will include a variety of workshops and events designed to help Georgians learn more about gardening for birds and other wildlife using native plants.
 
“One of the biggest threats to birds in Georgia is habitat loss,” says Adam Betuel, Birds Georgia’s director of conservation. “As urbanization increases and natural habitats disappear, native plants can go a long way to restoring the habitat birds need. Fortunately, we can ;provide birds with high-quality resources through thoughtful landscaping using native plants.”
 
The highlight of the month-long celebration will be the Fall Flyway Festival Round Robin on Saturday, September 14, from 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM at the Birds Georgia headquarters in the Trees Atlanta Kendeeda Treehouse, on the Westside Atlanta BeltLine. Offered in partnership with the Georgia Native Plant Society and Trees Atlanta, the Round Robin will bring fellow native plant and bird enthusiasts together who are interested in using native plants to transform their landscape into a bird- and wildlife-friendly habitat. With hands-on sessions focusing on both plant- and bird-related landscaping topics, the  event will culminate in a keynote address by Jennifer Ceska, conservation coordinator in the Science and Conservation Program at State Botanical Garden of Georgia, entitled Connect to Protect: A Call to Action from a Conservation Botanist, in Solidarity and in Hope.
 
In addition to this signature event, Birds Georgia will host a number of virtual and in-person events to educate the public about the importance of native plants to birds, including:

• Saturday, September 7, at 8:00 AM – Bird and Plant Walk at Mistletoe State Park (Columbia County)
• Saturday, September 7, at 9:00 AM – Birds, Bees, and Botany at the Earth Day Nature Trail (Glynn County)
• Tuesday, September 10, at 7:00 PM – Webinar: Rewilding Your Landscape, with Gabe Andrle
• Saturday, September 14, at 8:00 AM – Fall Flyway Round Robin, featuring keynote address by Jennifer Ceska with the State Botanical Garden of Georgia (Fulton County)
• Tuesday, September 17, at 9:00 AM – Oak Woodlands Workshop for NRCS, GFC, and County Extension Agents (Madison County)
• Wednesday, September 18, at 5:00 PM – Bird and Tree Hike at Lionel Hampton/Beecher Hills Park, with Gabe Andrle (Fulton County)
• Thursday, September 19, at 9:00 AM – Native Gardening for Birds at Island Ford Unit of Chattahoochee National Recreation Area (CRNRA) (Fulton County)
• Thursday, September 19, at 6:00 PM – Beginning Plant ID Workshop (DeKalb County)
• Saturday, September 21, at 8:00 AM – Birds Georgia BioBlitz at Cochran Shoals Unit of CRNRA (Fulton County)

Registration is now open for all events and spaces are limited. Learn more or register at https://www.birdsgeorgia.org/fall-flyway-festival.html.

By Dottie Head, Director of Communications

From its humble beginnings as a small stream in North Georgia all the way to the Florida border where it joins with the Flint River and ultimately drains in the Florida’s Apalachicola Bay, the Chattahoochee River, or ‘Hooch, is a popular place with outdoor enthusiasts, from birders and paddlers to hikers, anglers and more. In the metro area, the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area spans a 48 mile stretch of the river with 15 separate units where residents can relax, recreate, and recharge.

Along its 430-mile meandering path through Georgia, the Chattahoochee provides critical resources for millions of birds, including species that live in Georgia year-round and those that migrate through the state. Each spring and fall, billions of birds use the Chattahoochee River as a place to rest and feed during their epic migratory journeys. It’s critical for people, too, providing more than 70 percent of metro Atlanta’s drinking water to approximately five million people.

In recent years, Birds Georgia has been partnering with the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy (CNPC), the National Park Service (NPS), and the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to build bird-friendly habitat throughout the river corridor. The work is part of the greater vision of the Chattahoochee RiverLands which strives to reunite the Chattahoochee River with the metro Atlanta region and link suburban, urban, and rural communities into a continuous 100-mile public realm. Once complete, the Chattahoochee RiverLands will be a linear network of greenways, blueways, and parks that bring people to the water’s edge, promote stewardship and conservation, and reveal the subtle magic of the Chattahoochee River to all who visit.

Birds Georgia has been working along the Chattahoochee, from the Island Ford Unit in Sandy Springs downriver to McIntosh Reserve in Carroll County, to restore bird-friendly habitat by removing invasive plant species and replacing them with native plants that are good for birds and for pollinators. The habitat team has also assisted the Georgia Department of Natural Resources with prescribed burns at Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Let’s take a kayak trip down the river and look at some of this work.

We’ll start our journey at the Island Ford Unit, headquarters of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA), in Sandy Springs. As you approach the historic Hewlett Lodge Visitors Center, you can’t miss the fantastic bird and pollinator garden just outside the entrance. For the past three years, Birds Georgia has been working to install this beautiful and productive garden which welcomes visitors to the park. Chock full of native plants, like American beautyberry, ironweed, mountain mint, rattlesnake master, and other flowering grassland species, the garden is a bird and pollinator paradise. This work is being funded by the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy (CNPC), and they have also provided a cadre of volunteers to assist with planting and maintaining this landscape. 

From Island Ford, we float by our friends at the Chattahoochee Nature Center and portage our way around Morgan Falls Dam on our way down to Cochran Shoals Unit of the CRNRA. This is the most visited unit of the CRNRA, and Birds Georgia was thrilled to receive a grant from the Georgia Ornithological Society to restore the “Sparrow Field” at this site. Both CPNC and the National Park Service are providing support and volunteers for this project which helps fulfill the vision of connecting people with the Chattahoochee River. Birds Georgia has begun working to restore early successional habitat in the Sparrow Field, a popular birdwatching area that has been known to host common sparrow species, like Song and Chipping Sparrows as well as more uncommon species, like Grasshopper and LeConte’s Sparrows.

Continuing down the ‘Hooch a few more miles, we pass inside the Perimeter and make a stop at Standing Peachtree Creek. Standing Peachtree was an historic Native American village of the Muscogee Tribe and is the closest Native American settlement to what is now known as Buckhead, in Atlanta. The village was located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River in today’s Paces neighborhood. According to Wikipedia, Standing Peachtree was located in the borderlands of the Cherokee and Muscogee nations and is referenced in documents dating back to 1782.

Today, Standing Peachtree Creek is the first stop on the Chattahoochee RiverLand’s Camp + Paddle Trail. Once completed, paddlers will be able to use the newly installed launch for their kayaks/canoes and then camp and paddle their way down the river for 48-miles ending at McIntosh Reserve in Carroll County. The launch site for the Camp + Paddle Trail, at Standing Peachtree will feature a fully accessible kayak launch, and Birds Georgia is working with TPL to remove invasive plant species, like English Ivy and Chinese privet, and replace them with bird-friendly native species.

Paddling downriver, past I-285, our next stop will be the Chattahoochee RiverLands Showcase Project, the nearly 3-mile linear park and greenway trail will extend from Riverview Landing downstream through the 140-acre Discover Park, across Nickajack Creek to RiverLands Gateway Park at Mableton Parkway. The entire project serves as a model for the Chattahoochee RiverLands and its work connecting people to the river. In partnership with TPL, Birds Georgia is restoring bird-friendly habitat along this stretch, including at the site for the much anticipated RiverLands Gateway Park that will provide a gateway to the river complete with parking, restrooms, a kayak launch and boat ramp, and other recreation amenities. Birds Georgia and TPL are hosting habitat restoration workdays, bird walks, and other events to showcase this new area. TPL recently received a Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program Grant which will support the development of the land into a regional park and trailhead. Birds Georgia is removing privet and other non-native invasive plant species and installing native plants, like elderberry, river birch, American sycamore, and buttonbus, along the southern one-mile stretch of the project.
As the north anchor to the RiverLands Showcase ProjectRiverview Park is a trailhead and provides access to the river with a dock and floating kayak launch. Nearby there is a coffee shop, brewery, and barbecue restaurant which serve the river community..  The Showcase Project will be complete by 2026.

Continue paddling downriver until you pass under I-20 and the river is divided by an island. A large sandy beach marks the north end of Buzzard Roost Island. Only accessible by boat, Buzzard Roost will be an optional stop along the Camp + Paddle Trail. Keep your eyes peeled for shorebird species, like Killdeer and yellowlegs, that forage on this sandy spit. The island houses some massive tulip poplar trees, black walnuts, and American sycamores, and is a quiet, peaceful stop for paddlers and other river travelers to have a picnic, and a great place to birdwatch. Birds Georgia has been working at Buzzard Roost, to remove privet and replace it with native rivercane, elderberry, black willow, buttonbush, and Eastern Cottonwood.

As you depart Buzzard Roost and travel downriver past Sweetwater Creek,  you’ll encounter a boat ramp on property owned by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. This is another good place to launch a boat if you want to access the southern section of the river. From the boat ramp, you can paddle north to Buzzard Roost or continue downriver to historic Campbellton. You’ll find an additional public boat ramp at Campbellton Park, located in the City of Chattahoochee Hills, this is the third site of the Camp + Paddle Trail which provides sites for primitive camping and a new restroom and shower pavilion.

The Trust for Public Land has been a tremendous partner to Birds Georgia providing volunteers and other resources for our work restoring a native wet meadow for birds and pollinators in a field adjacent to the boat ramp. The meadow includes a variety of native grasses, including wildrye, deertongue, gamagrass, and big bluestem in addition to beautiful flowering perennials like pink milkweed, cardinal flower, ironweed, and common boneset. In 2023, an Olive-sided Flycatcher was also spending time in this meadow. Other birds you may see here include Indigo Buntings, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Common Yellowthroat, Sedge and Marsh Wrens, and, during migration, a host of migrating warblers.

New RiverLands Park is the next stop on our journey and fourth site for the Camp + Paddle Trail. Located in Chattahoochee Hills, this brand new park is not yet open to the public. Once opened this fall, visitors to this park can enjoy a stunning view of the river as well as primitive campsites and new restroom facilities for paddlers. Over the past year, Birds Georgia has been working with TPL to remove invasive plants, including an infestation of privet,  multiflora rose, and Elaeagnus (or Autumn Olive). In their place, Birds Georgia is adding native plants, including ironwood, basswood, red mulberry, and American beautyberry. Gabe reports that this is an excellent birding location, having seen species such as Swainson’s Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Kentucky Warbler on breeding territory at the site. He predicts that it will quickly become a new eBird hotspot.

Continuing downriver into Carroll County, you’ll arrive at Mcintosh Reserve. This is the final stop along the Camp + Paddle Trail and is across the river from Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Managed by Carroll County, this beautiful park just tripled in size thanks to two new land acquisitions that TPL helped secure. The Birds Georgia team has been working to install a pollinator garden near the new restroom facility. Be on the lookout for Bald Eagles that have been known to nest across the river. This spot is also near Council Bluff, which boasts a beautiful, elevated view of the river and is a great place to have a picnic or just enjoy the scenic beauty of the Chattahoochee. 

McIntosh Reserve marks the southern end of our work with TPL on the Chattahoochee RiverLands, but at this point of the journey it is less than 50 miles downstream to Columbus, Georgia where you can take on the rapids near downtown or stop and enjoy a meal or a beverage along the wonderful RiverWalk.

“It has been a great experience working with TPL, CNPC, and NPS to implement the vision for the Chattahoochee RiverLands by restoring high quality habitat along this river corridor for the birds and people, too,” says Andrle. “The Chattahoochee River is such an amazing resource that runs across the state, and we look forward to continuing our work with these and other organizations to make the Chattahoochee River an even more important resource for birds and for the people who visit.”
 

0630: Field briefing by Georgia Department of Natural Resources Biologist, Tim Keyes. We are waiting for the weather to clear. We load three boats full of gear: tables, chairs, tents, fencing, coolers, and banding equipment. 

0645: We have boarded the boats and are on our way to Bird Island - a dredge spoil island in the middle of the Brunswick Harbor, meticulously crafted for the birds by the Georgia DNR in 2008. The island has a unique quality - it’s isolated. The typical threats to ground-nesting birds are lessened by this isolation. Mammalian predators have a hard time crossing the river, and the island is closed to recreational use (for the birds’ safety). The island was built high enough to provide reprieve from storms and tidal overwash, creating an oasis of open, sandy habitat perfect for nesting seabirds. It has now grown to be the largest seabird colony in Georgia - and one of the most successful, too. American Oystercatchers, Black Skimmers, Brown Pelicans, Gull-billed Terns, Royal Terns, and Sandwich Terns nest on Bird Island.

​

0700: We have arrived. The raucous sound is almost overwhelming as the adults take flight. We’ve landed on the southwest corner of the island to avoid disturbing any active nesting taking place. 
​

Birds Georgia is utilizing ARUs to detect nightjars in Georgia. The Chuck-will’s-widow, Eastern Whip-poor-will, and Common Nighthawk are three species of nightjars found in Georgia. Nightjars are aerial insectivores and tend to be most active at dawn and at dusk, and on bright, moonlit nights. While Chuck-will’s-widows and Common Nighthawks range throughout the entire state, Eastern Whip-poor-wills’ breeding range excludes the coastal plain. Chuck-will's-widow numbers declined by about 1.6%, per year for a cumulative decline of approximately 58% between 1966 and 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. 

Birds Georgia hopes to help fill in some of the data gaps for this species and create more suitable habitat to help these birds, and, as such, we have selected the Chuck-will’s-widow as our 2023 to 2025 Species of Concern. Birds Georgia is directing additional resources and expertise to the Chuck-will’s-widow – restoring native habitat, assisting with species-specific research, and engaging the public to help us better understand statewide population numbers and migratory behavior.

To do this, we are promoting the Nightjar Survey Network, formed by the The Center for Conservation Biology and coordinated by the Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) as part of the emerging Global Nightjar Knowledge Network. In addition to the Nightjar Survey Network, we are coordinating with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (Wildlife Resources Division, Nongame Conservation Section) to coordinate survey routes and ensure statistical and scientific rigor. 

Volunteers are asked to survey one time per year, during late spring or early summer. Routes are nine miles with 10 stops, spaced one mile apart. Observers listen for Chuck-will’s-widows, Eastern Whip-poor-will’s, and Common Nighthawks over a six-minute period.  Data is recorded and shared with the Nightjar Survey Network, GA DNR, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2024, we are on track to complete more than 13 routes – the most since the program began in 2007.

Our partner, Dr. Clark Rushing and graduate students at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry are studying dispersal and migration of Chuck-will’s-widows along the coast by utilizing GPS tags. 

We are building off Dr. Rushing’s work by deploying these 15 Autonomous Recording Units (ARU’s) on private and preserved lands with differing management strategies with the goal of detecting which practices may yield better habitat for these nightjars. Private lands, greater than 10 acres in size, are encouraged to apply for our Habitat Stewardship Program. It is designed to enable property stewards to make improvements to their land for the benefit of native wildlife while also connecting them to educational resources, technical assistance programs, cost-sharing and revenue-generating programs, engagement and research opportunities..

Additionally, eBird and iNaturalist users are encouraged to report any incidental sightings of Chuck-will’s-widows, Eastern Whip-poor-wills, and Common Nighthawks. Complete reports and reports with photos, audio, or detailed comments are extremely helpful to learning more about this secretive summer singer. 

Birds Georgia has selected 10 sites for the placement of 15 AudioMoth units to assist us in learning more about the life histories of these birds (see figure 2). The sites chosen range from the barrier islands to the piedmont – reflecting the unique land uses and habitats in Georgia. Chuck-will’s-widows and Eastern Whip-poor-wills are known to occur within deciduous, pine (Pinus spp.), oak-hickory (Quercus-Carya spp.), and mixed forests. They also inhabit live oak (Q. virginiana) groves, forest edges, and riparian areas. Openings, including forest gaps, pastures, and scrub, appear to be an important habitat component for foraging, but comparative use of habitat types has not yet been studied in these species. Common Nighthawks favor more open habitat, including dunes, grasslands, fields, and can often be found in suburban areas near bright lights. 

​

 By Roseanne Guerra, Education Program Coordinator
 
This spring, the Birds Georgia education team noticed a spike in classroom program requests from Gwinnett County Public Schools. It turns out, Gwinnett County has adopted the EL (formerly Expeditionary Learning) Language Arts Curriculum entitled “Growing as Researchers: Birds’ Amazing Bodies.” As part of this curriculum, all Gwinnett County Public School first graders must complete a six- to eight-week module on BIRDS!

The education team, Melanie, Melissa and Roseanne, taught inside the classroom and outside – leading programs on bird adaptations, beaks, and feathers. The most meaningful times for me were teaching about common schoolyard birds and their songs, and then taking the students out on school grounds with loaner binoculars find some of the birds we talked about in the classroom. I was also honored to be invited back to participate with students and their parents in their “Celebration of Learning.” It was so exciting to see how far they had come.

A number of the Gwinnett County schools that requested programs were Title 1 schools, and thanks to the generosity of our members and donors, Birds Georgia was able to offer scholarships to these schools so that ALL first graders could participate. Birds are for everyone! Even for the newly-immigrated students who don’t speak much English yet, binoculars are still fun, and the beauty of birds is universal.

Now that word is out, I’m sure we will be even busier next spring. Bring it on!

To request a Birds Georgia School Program, visit our website.

More details about the EL Education module can be found here.
 

By Steve Phenicie
 
“When you go back to Atlanta, why don’t you take some of those Boat-tailed Grackles with you?” That was the comment made a few years ago by a coastal resident to a group of metro area birders.
 
These often noisy birds — which can leave messy droppings, damage crops and have a call sometimes described as harsh — won’t win any Miss or Mr. Congeniality awards from human beings. Other birds aren’t enamored with them either because of their aggressive behavior, which can include gobbling up eggs and nestlings.
 
As their name suggests, the most prominent feature of the males, their tail, is kind of like Dolly Parton’s wigs – big and showy. This bird is smaller than a Fish Crow but larger than a Common Grackle, with males glossy black all over. Females — which almost look like a different species — are dark brown above and russet below, with a subtle face pattern made up of a pale eyebrow, dark cheek, and pale “mustache” stripe.
 
You won’t find them anywhere near Atlanta — only along marshes, beaches, flooded fields, and mudflats near the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Connecticut to Texas except in Florida, where they pretty much inhabit the entire state. Their diet includes aquatic insects, snails, crayfish, crabs, mussels, shrimp, tadpoles, frogs, small fish, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. For variety, they add parking-lot french fries, bread, rice, dog food, commercial bird seed, and fruit crops.
 
The boat-tailed nests in colonies, usually near water: in cattails, sawgrass, or bulrushes, in bushes or saplings at edge of a marsh, or in taller trees. The nest is generally less than 12 feet above ground or water but can be much higher. Nesting and raising the young is mostly a female affair. She builds a large, bulky cup of twigs, grass, weeds, bulrushes, Spanish moss, or other materials, often with mud added to base and lined with fine grass.
 
There she usually lays two to four pale greenish blue eggs and incubates them for 13 to 15 days. Feeding the young is entirely her responsibility, too, and they leave the nest about 12 to 15 days after hatching.
 
Some cool facts about the Boat-tailed Grackle:

• When it comes to getting around, these birds don’t exactly compete with Delta. Most spend their lives within about 10 miles of where they hatch.
  
• Until the 1970s, this bird was considered to be the same species as the Great-tailed Grackle, but the two overlap on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana without interbreeding.
  
• They are fairly common within their restricted range, but populations declined by about 47 percent between 1966 and 2014, according to the North America Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at 2 million, with all of them in the United States.
  
• Their eye color varies with range. Gulf Coast and inland birds have dark eyes, but Atlantic birds have pale eyes.
  
• Their most serious predators are yellow rat snakes that attack their nests, but they are also preyed upon by rats, alligators, and Purple Gallinules.

by Dottie Head, Director of Communications

Birds Georgia was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative Program for a project titled, Grassroots Grasslands: A Community Restoration Effort to Re-establish Native Plants for Pollinators and Birds in Evans, Georgia.

As part of the grant work, Birds Georgia will partner with the Central Savannah River Land Trust, among other local partners, to restore 11 acres of fallow pastures to native grassland habitat for pollinators and birds within a recently donated preserve, engaging the local community through volunteer workdays and educational opportunities.

“Birds Georgia was thrilled to learn of this grant to restore grassland habitat at Laverlea Preserve,” says Jared Teutsch, Executive Director of Birds Georgia.  “We are keenly interested in the response of bird species to this work, including Grasshopper Sparrow, American Kestrel, and other species of concern identified by the Georgia State Wildlife Action Plan.” 

In recent decades, many birds that rely on open and early-successional habitats have seen a decline in population due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and a variety of other factors. Grassland birds in particular have seen a decrease in population by about 53% since 1970 according to a 2019 study (https://www.3billionbirds.org/findings) conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and other partners.

Additional declining species that utilize grassland habitat include Eastern Meadowlark, Northern Harrier, Field Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, and Common Nighthawk. By restoring native grasslands and reducing the presence of non-native and invasive plant species, Birds Georgia will create suitable habitat for these grassland-dependent bird species.

Per the wishes of the donor, the goal is for Laverlea Preserve to become an ecological and education site for the community. The preserve comprises upland and mesic forests, bottomland hardwood forests, wetlands and streams, grasslands, and pastures. There are already plans in place to thin the dense mixed hardwood/pine stands that surround the pastures, which will promote more open groundcover and encourage native plants. The preserve also contains over 6,200 feet of the Euchee Creek and adjacent riparian forest buffer that will become a part of a public greenway trail being established by the county. Laverlea is ecologically important and is a remarkably large tract of land in the rapidly-urbanizing town of Evans (near Augusta, Georgia), where the average parcel size is less than one acre.

“Work is expected to begin in early July, and the first step will be cataloging birds, plants, and butterfly species that are present on the preserve so that we can see how these species respond to the treatment,” says Heather Levy, Birds Georgia’s stewardship coordinator who will oversee the restoration project for Birds Georgia. “The next steps will be to conduct a controlled-burn to cull invasive grasses and remove built up thatch so that native plants and wildflowers can thrive. Finally, we will plant a seed mix for warm-season, native grasses across the 11-acre restoration site to encourage the establishment of  native grasses and to control weedy plants. In the following years, we will plant native wildflowers, shrubs, and other plants. The long-term goal is to create a habitat where native grasses and wildflowers can flourish and provide support to grassland bird species and butterfly species.”

In addition, Birds Georgia and the Central Savannah River Land Trust will host volunteer work days and public bird walks on the site with the goal of fostering a diverse group of environmental stewards to assist with the project and to empower and educate individuals about habitat restoration.

The grant is for a one-year period, but Birds Georgia and the Central Savannah River Land Trust intend to use the funds to initiate long-term ecological education at the site. The one-year grant cycle will serve as a kick start to develop a management plan, treat invasive species, and establish the first round of native plantings. Following year one, the partners plan to monitor native plant growth, add additional native grasses and wildflowers, and seek additional funding for large-scale restoration and maintenance of the Laverlea Preserve.

About Birds Georgia: Birds Georgia is building places where birds and people thrive. We create bird-friendly communities through conservation, education, and community engagement. Founded in 1926 as the Atlanta Bird Club, the organization became a chapter of National Audubon in 1973, and continues as an independent chapter of National Audubon Society. Learn more at https://www.birdsgeorgia.org/.
 
About Central Savannah River Land Trust: We are the Central Savannah River Land Trust: a nationally-accredited, local non-profit, passionate about the future of these special places throughout our community. Since 2001, the Land Trust has protected over 10,000 acres of land throughout Georgia and South Carolina. Places like the Augusta Canal Trail, where families can enjoy an afternoon on the river, and scenic views of the Savannah River like the ones from the I-20 bridge, and several Columbia County neighborhoods are just some of our more well-known success stories. Learn more at https://csrlt.org/ .