birding...

Brown Thrasher Toxostoma rufum ©Mike Danzenbaker http://www.avesphoto.com/

Georgia ranks as the biggest state east of the Mississippi, at 58,000 square miles of land area, being slightly larger than Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida, in that order. Historically under-populated in the rural areas, especially in the coastal plain, it is now the 6th fastest growing state in the country, with over 7 million people; that is a mixed blessing for birding, but no doubt a net negative for bird habitat. Physio-graphically, Georgia ranges from the highlands of the southern Appalachians, including Blue Ridge, Ridge-and-Valley, and Cumberland Plateau provinces, to the rolling red-clay terrain of the Piedmont, to the Coastal Plain: the flat, mostly sandy terrain below the Fall Line (aka gnat line aka Spanish moss line). Roughly half the state`s area lies in the latter province, a still sparsely populated area, much of which is devoted to industrial pine plantations, having replaced the vast open under story longleaf pine forests of centuries gone by. But cypress and black-gum swamps and bay-swamp forests still hold dominion over many Carolina bays and river bottoms.

Although Georgia`s Atlantic coastline, at about 100 miles, is a fraction the length of its southern neighbour, and smaller than most of its northern neighbours`, fully 9 of 13 major barrier islands are preserved in an undeveloped state, giving Georgia the highest percentage of deserted beachfront of any east-coast state. This is good news for nesting and wintering shorebirds, gulls and the like, and it means that the potential for rare coastal bird species is high; on the other hand, these locales are birded only a tiny fraction the amount that Florida`s coastline is birded, with 16 million people living on or within an hour-and-a-half drive of the coast. Georgia`s coast lies farther west and farther from the continental shelf and the Gulf Stream current than any other spot on the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. This means that pelagic species are harder to come by than in, say, North Carolina. It also gives Georgia fully one-third of the acreage of tidal salt marshes on the entire Atlantic Coast - lots of habitat for nesting Seaside Sparrows, Marsh Wrens and Clapper Rails and lots of wintering habitat for both species of Sharp-tailed Sparrows and other species of rails.

Although there are no Georgia specialty birds, the state is one of the top several states in which to see individuals or colonies of several south-eastern specialties, including Anhinga, Purple Gallinule, Roseate Spoonbill, Reddish Egret, Tri-coloured Heron, Wood Stork, Glossy Ibis, Swallow-tailed Kite, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Swainson`s Warbler, Bachman`s Sparrow, and Boat-tailed Grackle. Occasionally, a Limpkin will show up in the Altamaha River or one of its tributaries. Small islands on the Georgia coast provide important nesting habitat for such rare species as Gull-billed Tern, Least Tern, Piping and Wilson`s Plovers, and American Oystercatchers, and also Black Skimmers and Brown Pelicans.

Georgia is just far north enough (and with elevations up to 4,700 feet) to have many breeding species of warblers (24 total) and also such boreal species as Ruffed Grouse, Red Crossbill and Northern Saw-Whet Owl. It is far south enough to have important wintering populations of such species as Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, Tree Swallow, White-eyed Vireo, Henslow`s Sparrow and Baltimore Oriole. The Greater race of the Sandhill Crane has important wintering habitat at Grand Bay near Valdosta and in the Okefenokee Swamp; both of these sites also have small breeding populations of the non-migratory Florida Sandhill Crane. Winter birding is particularly exciting along the coast, where 2 or 3 Christmas Bird Count circles frequently record 140 species or more in a day.

In the past 10 years or so, our knowledge of the occasional wintering range of several species of western hummingbirds has grown exponentially. As of the 1986 Annotated Checklist of Georgia Birds, only the Rufous and Black-chinned Hummingbirds were known to winter in small numbers in Georgia. But since many birders have been keeping their feeder filled throughout the winter, six more species have been documented in the state - namely, Magnificent, Allen`s, Anna`s, Calliope, Broad-tailed, and Broad-billed. Reports of a Green Violet-ear have not yet been verified, and it`s only a matter of time before a Buff-bellied shows up.

As of 2002, at least 180 species have been documented to breed in Georgia, according to the Georgia Breeding Bird Atlas project, and morethan 100 additional species winter in the state or migrate through it or at least visit it on an annual basis. There is no 400 Club in Georgia - yet. That is, no one person has seen 400 species in our state, as is the case for several other states (three states even have a 500 Club); but the more than 410-species total that have been documented in Georgia by the Georgia Ornithological Society`s Records Committee (405 as of 2001 accepted by the American Birding Association; that includes 4 extinct species) is one that is likely to climb; we are still an under-birded state compared to such states as Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California. There are many who have seen well over 300 species and several who have seen that many in a single year. On the subject of listing, Georgia ought to be some sort of mecca for county listers, because it has more counties (159) than any other state!