This weekend was the annual Georgia Youth Birding Competition. Our daughter has been following in her older brother’s footsteps. He competed for 10 years and last year he mentored some young kids in birding, including his 8 year old sister. It has been a particular joy to continue participating in the competition with another generation of kids, seeing their excitement and wonder at the beauty of God’s creation. Our young K-2nd grade team beat their total from last year by a whopping margin. Last year the beginning birders spotted 47 species, and this year they increased that to 64, winning their age division by a huge margin with nearly twice as many birds as the 2nd place team. They also raised over $300 for the American Bird Conservancy and won their age division for fundraising as well. Above all, I was so proud of them for their work ethic, teamwork, perseverance, and great attitude. They exemplified enthusiasm and fair-minded play, and I couldn’t have been more proud or enjoyed the weekend more.
We started out on Friday night at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. I had never been there before, but scouting reports made the area sound promising and we wanted to try something different than our usual haunts. We arrived about an hour before the start of the competition to try and scope out the terrain, but after bathroom breaks, and figuring out how to pay for parking, getting scopes together, etc. we didn’t have much time to spare before it was time to begin.
The evening was beautiful and the walk along the river was very pleasant, but the birds were harder to come by than we had hoped. There were plenty of people walking and jogging, pushing babies or being pulled along by large dogs. We tried to get off the beaten path when we could but it wasn’t easy to avoid people, so birding by ear was almost impossible. They managed to pick up about 20 species during the 2 1/2 hours we spent there. Highlights included seeing 3 Great Blue Herons on their nests in a tall tree. After the kids identified them they enjoyed watching them in the scope.
CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER NATIONAL RECREATION AREA:
(in order of the checklist, not in order of when we saw them)
1. Canada Goose
2. Mallard (one swam up very close to the overlook where we stood and the kids watched it for a long time)
3. Great Blue Heron (there were 3 of them, flying back and forth from the water and then up to a tall tree to perch in their nests. It was fun to see so many).
4. Double-crested Cormorant (seen perching in the water at the same spot where we viewed the GB Heron nest, the Mallard, and many Northern Rough Winged Swallows, and watched for a long time through the scope before the kids could ID it.) We have seen them so many times at our favorite birding spot but out of that regular context they struggled. A boy on our team (“I”) finally remembered after looking carefully through his guide and then everyone was surprised that they hadn’t recognized it sooner.
5. Northern Rough-winged Swallows (So many were flitting around near the overlook where we stood watching the GB Herons).
6. Black Vulture (seen flying, Identified by the white wingtips in flight)
7. Rusty Blackbird (a rarity but several had been seen at Ch.R. earlier in the week, identified with a field guide)
8. Blue Jay (seen up close in the tree overhead)
9. Tree Swallows (seen flitting over the water)
10. Hairy Woodpecker (identified by the call)
11.Northern Mockingbird
12. Eastern Bluebird
13. Tufted Titmouse
14. Northern Cardinal
15. Red-headed woodpecker (heard calling, also seen the next day at Kennesaw Mountain)
16. Brown-headed Cowbird
17. Eastern Towhee (heard and seen)
18. Fish Crow (heard and seen near the Mallards at the overlook, perching on small rock islands in the water)
19. Bank Swallow (seen among the other swallows, differentiated from the N. Rough Winged by their necks)
CHEATHAM HILL (NEAR THE BASE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD)
After Chattahoochee River NRA we headed to the base of Kennesaw Mountain, and walked around at Cheatham Hill for a bit. We didn’t see too much there that we hadn’t already seen but added another 7 species to bring their total for the night to 26.
20. Mourning doves, spotted on the wire as we were driving
21. Turkey Vultures, we pulled over to a parking lot to see them, they were identified in flight by the white underneath their wings
22. Red-bellied Woodpecker (heard calling)
23. Brown-Headed Nuthatch seen on the side of a tall tree in the woods, also heard calling
24. Great Horned Owl heard calling in the distance
25. Chipping Sparrow found on the edge of the field in the grass. We saw another one under the tree near the parking lot.
We also saw another Eastern Bluebird on the fence post as we were leaving.
The next day we were up bright and early, having arranged to meet at 5:30-ish at the mall parking lot). We arrived at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield shortly after dawn and began birding the parking lot and lower field before heading up the mountain. We got some birds in the lower level but the most spectacular sightings of the day happened while hiking up the mountain. The kids were chilly and needed to grab breakfast snacks after we got out of the car, but quickly began birding as we were seeing and hearing birds everywhere. Birding by ear was tricky because there were SO MANY birds calling, so they really had to concentrate in order to isolate one from another.
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD
26. Brown Thrasher (seen and heard many times)
27. American Robin (these were everywhere near the visitors center)
28. Eastern Phoebe (spotted in a tree above the parking lot)
29. Song Sparrow (seen in the grass, first identified as a tree sparrow but then they changed their mind after more carefully looking at their bird guides)
30. Carolina Chickadee
31. White Eyed Virio (identified by sound in the woods near the lower picnic area below the parking lot)
32. Yellow Warbler (sound)
33. Chestnut sided warbler (sound)
34. Red-tailed Hawk (this was one of the day’s highlights, as it swooped down right in front of us to catch a chipmunk in the woods right by where we were standing. The kids were so excited!!
35. Pine Warbler (sound)
36. Ovenbird (sound)
37. Black-throated Blue (sound)
38. Rose-breasted Grosbeak (we had a very clear view of it in the tree above us. I tried to scope it after the kids had identified it with binoculars, but we were too close to focus the scope)
39. Scarlet Tanager (a yellow female, in the same tree as the Rose-breasted Grosbeak)
40. Baltimore Oriole (seen perching and flitting around in the tree beside the Rose-breasted Grosbeak’s tree. There were two, a male and a female). By the time we had seen these 3 birds within about 3 minutes of each other, the kids were getting very excited and I felt that Kennesaw Mountain would be a successful location for them to see several new birds. We were flying high at that point and excited to keep moving!
41. Carolina Wren (seen in a tree overhead)
42. Black-throated Green (heard)
43. Hooded Warbler (heard and seen through binoculars)
The kids saw the red-headed Woodpecker which they had identified by call yesterday
44. Indigo Bunting (we saw a few, perching in some dead trees on the left side of the road near the top. This was another highlight)
We took the bus down as we needed to get to EL Huie in time to see what we could before they closed at 1:00. We got to EL Huie about 11:15, and I feared it wasn’t enough time. In retrospect I wish we had climbed the rest of the way to the top of Kennesaw Mountain and looked at the parking lot at the top, as I think that would have yielded more birds and we had more than enough time at EL Huie to see what was there.
E.L. HUIE WATER TREATMENT FACILITY IN HAMPTON, GA
45. Rock Pigeon
46. European Starling
47. Barn Swallow (the swallows were everywhere, and so close we almost felt we could reach out and touch them. There were so many beautiful Tree Swallows perching everywhere here)
48. Red-winged Blackbird (heard and seen)
49. Solitary Sandpiper (seen through binoculars and scope, there were several)
50. Lesser Yellowlegs (kids could easily have confused it with the Sandpiper as they have a similar back but the yellow legs gave it away)
51. Cliff Swallow (seen near one of the short bridge overlooks)
52. Wood Duck
53. Purple Martin clearly seen on the wires and on top of their houses
We left EL Huie and headed to Newman Wetlands, just a few minutes away. As we were driving two wild turkeys ran across the road right in front of us. There’s a bird! The kids were so thrilled and excited.
54. Wild Turkey
NEWMAN WETLANDS
55. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
56. Eastern Kingbird (at first identified as Eastern Phoebe but later they were looking through the field guide and realized their mistake. They already had an Eastern Phoebe and I didn’t say anything but the other chaperone and I had both seen the Kingbird and knew they had gotten it wrong the first time. I was glad they figured it out later when looking at their guide, all on their own).
57. Pileated Woodpecker (heard calling)
58. Great-crested Flycatcher
59. Red eyed Vireo (identified by call)
60. Blue headed Vireo (identified by call)
SHAMROCK BLACKLOCK LAKE
61. Summer Tanager (seen in a tree)
62. Red-shouldered Hawk seen over the lake
63. Bald Eagle (seen soaring over the lake). All our teams were regrouping when the Eagle appeared, having been separated the entire day. They all started whooping and hollering and it was such an incredible moment–we were at our last stop of the competition and they all saw a Bald Eagle at the same time. It was very momentous and I got goosebumps and felt so much gratitude to God for such a wonderful weekend with amazing kids.
64. American Crow (identified on the trip back to Charlie Elliott finish line)
At the awards banquet the kids won a book about drawing birds for their fundraising and new binoculars for winning their division. Our daughter was also overwhelmed and deeply moved to find out that she had won first prize for her painting of an Indigo Bunting in the birder-artist category (the participants in this competition had to submit bird artwork and be on a birding team).
