Birds Georgia will host the inaugural Georgia Bird Fest Summit on Saturday, April 20, from 8:30 to 2:00 PM, at the Classic Center, in Athens, GA. J. Drew Lanham, Ph.D., poet laureate, MacArthur fellow, and distinguished professor of wildlife ecology at Clemson University will give the keynote address on Coloring the Conservation Conversation. The Georgia Bird Fest Summit will bring bird enthusiasts from across the state to share knowledge and inspiration about birds, birding, and related issues in Georgia. The Georgia Bird Fest Summit is part of the ninth annual Georgia Bird Fest which returns this spring with more than 40 events between April 6 and May 4. Participation in the Georgia Bird Fest Summit and Georgia Bird Fest events provides critical support for Birds Georgia’s conservation, education, and community engagement programs. The event will officially begin at 8:30 AM on Saturday, April 20, with the keynote address, entitled, Coloring the Conservation Conversation, by J. Drew Lanham. He will discuss what it means to embrace the full breadth of his African-American heritage and his deep kinship to nature and adoration of birds. The convergence of ornithologist, college professor, poet, author and conservation activist blend to bring our awareness of the natural world and our moral responsibility for it forward in new ways. Candid by nature — and because of it — Lanham will examine how conservation must be a rigorous science and evocative art, inviting diversity and race to play active roles in celebrating our natural world. Avid Bookshop, an Athens-area book store, will be on hand selling a selection of Lanham’s books that will be available for the books signing event. Drew Lanham, Ph.D., is a certified wildlife biologist, an academic, writer, artist, and public intellectual, from Edgefield and Aiken, South Carolina. He is an Alumni Distinguished Professor, Provost's Professor and Master Teacher of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University, where his most recent scholarly efforts address the confluences of race, place and nature. A 2022 MacArthur Fellow, Dr. Lanham was also named one of the 100 most influential Black Americans by "The Root", in 2022. Creatively, Drew is the Poet Laureate of Edgefield County, South Carolina and the author of Sparrow Envy - Poems, Sparrow Envy - A Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, and The Home Place - Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature. In addition, the Summit will feature six breakout sessions from which attendees can choose. To see the full schedule of events, please visit our website. Early bird registration (through April 5) is $100 ($50 for students with a .edu email address). After April 6, the registration fee increases to $125 ($62 for students). Refreshments and lunch are included in the Summit registration fee. Registration is now open for the Georgia Bird Fest Summit and other Georgia Bird Fest on our website. Birds Georgia would like to thank the following event sponsors: Georgia Power Company, Barefoot Garden Design, Bird Collective, BirdNote, Bonsai Leadership Group, eBird, Jekyll Island Authority, Lynx Nature Books, Patagonia, Sticker Mule, Southwire, and Vortex.
0 Comments
Thanks to a generous grant from the Disney Conservation Fund, Birds Georgia has been working with Dr. Kyle Horton at Colorado State University (CSU) to measure migratory bird activity over the state during spring and fall migration. These maps were the result of that work. Each fall and spring, billions of migratory birds travel across North America making their way between breeding grounds and wintering grounds. These birds must constantly confront changes to the landscapes below caused by natural and man-made forces, including the rapid proliferation of brightly lit nighttime landscapes. While migration takes part in the skies, birds must stop along the way to rest and refuel. Birds Georgia wants to know WHERE these birds are stopping and to gain a better understanding of WHY they choose these locations. By pairing migration intensity measurements from nearby weather stations with other environmental variables, the CSU team was able to train a machine learning model that predicted migration intensity in Georgia during spring and fall from 2000 to 2020. With these predictions, they were able to establish regions considered hotspots of bird migration stopover and refueling. The darker areas on the maps represent higher concentrations of birds stopping over to rest and feed. In over 70% of the models that were created, skyglow (or night time lighting) was identified as a highly influential and consistently positive predictor of bird migration stopover density across Georgia and the United States. The findings of this study point to the ever-expanding threat that brightly lit night skies pose to birds, particularly during migration. In short, migratory birds are extremely sensitive to nighttime lighting which acts like a magnet pulling them into brightly lit areas and cities where they face threats ranging from building collisions to predation. In recent years, the Colorado State Team has been working with state organizations, like Birds Georgia, to provide state-level migration forecasts enabling us to issue Lights Out alerts on nights of peak migratory bird activity. Learn more about this project or view the nightly forecast for Georgia enabled by this technology on our website. by Dottie Head, Director of Communications
This spring, Birds Georgia will kick off the 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 4,200 birds representing 135 different species that perished after colliding with buildings. Recently, Project Safe Flight was extended to coastal Georgia with volunteers patrolling routes in Savannah and Brunswick as well as continuing routes in metro Atlanta. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds continue to be the most commonly found species, followed by Tennessee Warbler, Swainson’s Thrush, Cedar Waxwing, and Ovenbird. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Wood Thrush, American Robin, Common Yellowthroat, and Red-eyed Vireo round out the 10 most commonly collected species by Project Safe Flight volunteers. Current research estimates that between 350 million and 1 billion birds perish each year from colliding with buildings in the U.S. Attracted by nighttime lights and confused by daytime reflections of habitat in shiny windows, many birds become disoriented and fly into the buildings, ending their journeys and their lives prematurely. “Birds Georgia launched Project Safe Flight in 2015 to gain a better understanding of the bird-building collision problem across Georgia,” says Adam Betuel, Birds Georgia’s director of conservation. “We have been studying what species are most likely to collide with buildings, how many birds are affected, and what parts of the state are most problematic. Since the program began, we’ve learned a lot about how and where building collisions are occurring, and we’ve implemented some programs and changes to help reduce collisions and make Georgia safer for migrating birds.” Monitored sites included public sidewalks, private businesses, university campuses, and a handful of government buildings. Each spring and fall, Project Safe Flight Georgia volunteers patrol predetermined routes across the state collecting birds that have collided with buildings. Patrols run from late March through May each spring and again from mid-August to mid-November in the late summer and fall, covering peak migration months for many species. There are several ways the public can help. One of the easiest is to reduce nighttime lighting during peak migration periods. The Lights Out Georgia program was designed to encourage homeowners and commercial properties to turn off nighttime lights from midnight to 6 AM during peak migration. New migration forecasting technology has allowed Birds Georgia to predict nights of extremely high bird migration and issues Lights Out Alerts for evenings of peak migratory activity. For more information or to sign up, please visit our Lights Out Georgia page. More information on how to make your home bird-safe, to sign up as a Project Safe Flight Volunteer, or to report dead birds you find at your home or workplace, please visit the Project Safe Flight Georgia page. Birds Georgia will host a Project Safe Flight webinar on Tuesday, April 9, at 7:00 PM to share information about bird-building collisions and causes, and to discuss ways we can make our homes and cities safer. Sarah Tolve, Bird Georgia's coastal conservation coordinator, will provide an overview of Birds Georgia's Project Safe Flight program and share how volunteers can get involved. Learn how monitoring efforts are conducted on the ground, how to report sightings, what is being done with this data, and what we’ve learned (and how the program has grown) since Project Safe Flight Launched in 2015. The program is free to attend, and sign up is now available on our upcoming events page. by Dottie Head, Director of Communications
The ninth annual Georgia Bird Fest will return this spring with more than 40 events between April 6 and May 4. Join fellow nature and bird enthusiasts for exciting field trips, workshops, and other events to celebrate and enjoy Georgia’s exciting spring migration period. This year’s event will feature the Inaugural Georgia Bird Fest Summit on Saturday, April 20, in Athens, Georgia. Dr. J. Drew Lanham, poet laureate, McArthur fellow, and distinguished professor of wildlife ecology at Clemson University will give the keynote address on Coloring the Conservation Conversation. Participation in Georgia Bird Fest provides critical support for Birds Georgia’s conservation, education, and community engagement programs. Georgia Bird Fest includes events across Georgia, from the mountains to the coast, including both in-person and virtual events and workshops. Some of the event highlights for Georgia Bird Fest 2024 include past favorites such as a tour of Zoo Atlanta’s bird collection; canoe trips on the Chattahoochee River; a Warbler Weekend in North Georgia; trips to Phinizy Swamp near Augusta and Harris Neck NWR on the coast; an overnight stay at the Len Foote Hike Inn in Dawsonville; and trips to other birding hot spots across the state. Some of this year’s virtual offerings include Birding 101, Warbler ID, Raptor ID, and a Building Your Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary webinars. This year, we’re excited to premiere a new addition to the Georgia Bird Fest lineup of events. On Saturday, April 20, Bird Georgia will host our inaugural Georgia Bird Fest Summit from 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM at the Classic Center in Athens, GA. The Georgia Bird Fest Summit is designed to bring people from the state-wide birding community together to share knowledge and inspiration about what organizations are doing in Georgia's conservation, education, and community engagement programming. The Summit will consist of our keynote presentation and six breakout sessions from which attendees can choose. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. In addition, there will be activities in and around Athens on the day of the event. We’re delighted to share that Dr. J. Drew Lanham will be giving our keynote address with a talk entitled, "Coloring the Conservation Conversation." Dr. Lanham will discuss what it means to embrace the full breadth of his African-American heritage and his deep kinship to nature and adoration of birds. The convergence of ornithologist, college professor, poet, author and conservation activist blend to bring our awareness of the natural world and our moral responsibility for it forward in new ways. Candid by nature — and because of it — Lanham will examine how conservation must be a rigorous science and evocative art, inviting diversity and race to play active roles in celebrating our natural world. Drew Lanham, Ph.D., is a certified wildlife biologist, an academic, writer, artist, and public intellectual, from Edgefield and Aiken, South Carolina. He is an Alumni Distinguished Professor, Provost's Professor and Master Teacher of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University, where his most recent scholarly efforts address the confluences of race, place and nature. A 2022 MacArthur Fellow, Dr. Lanham was also named one of the 100 most influential Black Americans by "The Root", in 2022. Creatively, Drew is the Poet Laureate of Edgefield County, South Carolina and the author of Sparrow Envy - Poems, Sparrow Envy - A Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, and The Home Place - Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature. His memoir is a past winner of the Reed Environmental Writing Award (Southern Environmental Law Center), the Southern Book Prize, and a 2017 finalist for the Burroughs Medal. It was named a memoir and scholarly book of the decade by Lithub & Chronicle of Higher Education. His forthcoming works are Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves, The Bird I Became, and Range Maps - Birds, Blackness and Loving Nature Between the Two. Registration for Georgia Bird Fest opens on March 5 for Birds Georgia members and on March 12 for non-members. For more information or to view a full schedule of events, please visit https://www.birdsgeorgia.org/birdfest.html . Birds Georgia would like to thank the following event sponsors: Georgia Power Company, Barefoot Garden Design, Bird Collective, Bonsai Leadership Group, Jekyll Island Authority, Lynx Nature Books, Sticker Mule, Southwire, and Vortex. 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 today. We look forward to celebrating the 100- year anniversary of our organization in 2026. Learn more at https://www.birdsgeorgia.org/. ### |
AuthorBirds Georgia is building places where birds and people thrive. Archives
September 2024
Categories |