Fall Flyway Festival Celebrates Birds and Native Plants

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.