Jay Davis Receives Scottie Johnson Spirit Award for 2024

Jay Davis was presented with a framed photo of a Red-headed Woodpecker by Tammy Poulnott. Photo by Dottie Head

Jay Davis was presented with the 2024 Scottie Johnson Spirit Award at our annual Holiday Party and Annual Meeting on December 8.  Jay has been an integral part of our organization's work, hosting field trips across the city, from Decatur to Marietta and all in between. It’s impossible to quantify how many birders and bird enthusiasts have been impacted by his bird-brained ideas. In 2004, he was part of a team that created the Bird Jam app, a revolutionary software that taught people how to hear and learn bird calls. Later, BirdNet and Cornell got wind of it…fast forward to today and we have the popular Merlin Bird ID App. Jay serves as the volunteer webmaster for Birds Georgia and helped create the first web presence for Atlanta Audubon when they first developed an online presence. Even today, he maintains the Birds Georgia website on his servers and helps troubleshoot when issues arrive. He’s also a prolific field trip leader (and excellent birder),  leading our Georgia Bird Fest Hike Inn Trip and hosting “Wednesdays After Work Migration Watch at Cochran Shoals.   Thank you, Jay, for impacting hundreds of people as you embody the curiosity, ingenuity, and character of the birds you love so much.

About the Scottie Johnson Spirit Award: ​In 2018, Birds Georgia lost an incredibly dedicated volunteer and dear friend, Ms. Eleanor Scott Johnson. Scottie, as her family and friends called her, was an avid birder and long-time volunteer for Birds Georgia. There wasn’t a task that Scottie wasn’t up for, whether that was giving educational presentations, walking a Project Safe Flight route, certifying wildlife sanctuaries, or writing the Ask Chippy column. Scottie always raised her hand to help us out. She was a nurse, a mother, a Master Birder, and a wonderful human being with an amazing spirit. Although we lost Scottie to cancer in 2018, we continue to celebrate her spirit, kindness, and perseverance annually by honoring an outstanding volunteer with the Scottie Johnson Spirit Award.