Georgia Conservancy's Native Georgia Blog

By Pierre Howard

Our boat left Charleston harbor in the dark at 4:30 AM headed into Georgia waters. After about three hours of steady riding on a calm sea, we crossed into Georgia at about 120 miles off Ossabaw Island.

The trip with five friends was made to photograph rare seabirds that congregate in the Gulf Stream in summer- birds that nest on islands far to the south and then spend the rest of the year at sea, feeding and resting on the water.

Leaving from Charleston is the best way to get to Georgia’s deep water fast.  The Georgia Bight, the inward curvature of the Georgia coastline, makes getting to the best birding spots beyond the reach of most boats because of fuel limitations.

To attract birds, we put out a “slick” of menhaden oil and shark’s liver behind the boat, as we glided slowly into the brightness of the May dawn.

The water of the Gulf Stream was a deep sapphire blue, so different from the brownish water inshore. On the horizon, a Cory’s Shearwater sailed just above the gentle waves. Our largest shearwater, Cory’s is brown on the back and white underneath with long wings.

Soon, the captain shouted that there were birds on the water ahead. It was two Manx Shearwaters, small shearwaters that are black above and gleaming white below, with white undertail coverts and a small white crescent behind the cheek.

Once thought to be rare in Georgia waters, more Manx are being seen with an increase in pelagic trips. (The term “pelagic trips” refers to birding from a boat in the open ocean, often far from land.) The Manx pair finally took flight and relocated a short distance way.

Now, Wilson’s Storm-Petrels were dancing in the wake over the menhaden oil, looking for prey to pick from the surface. A Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, larger and longer-winged than the Wilson’s came gliding in, as did a Leach’s Storm-Petrel.

As the sun got hotter, we began to see Black-capped Petrels, a threatened seabird that nests on in the mountains of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Some experienced Georgia birders have seen only a few Black-caps in their life. This day we would see over fifty of them, sometimes in flocks. From the horizon, a large dark bird was streaking toward the boat.

As it continued to approach and come in close, we could see that it was a light phase Pomarine Jaeger.

This fearsome bird lives at sea by stealing fish from other birds, while on its arctic nesting grounds, it survives on a diet of brown lemmings. We fed it a Spanish sardine or two, which it grabbed and swallowed whole.

Some fluffy white clouds formed a phalanx across on the southern horizon, as if resting on the water far away. It was a day of incredible beauty at sea. Pristine was a word that came to mind.

Loggerhead turtles, dolphins, flying fish, Sargasso grass - all living in pure, clean water.

The thought of BP’s oil ruining a place of such vibrant beauty and fragile life is unthinkable. I imagined how the people on the Gulf Coast must feel. Their frustration and anger give way to a determination to act to save a way of life. The BP oil would threaten the life of everything I saw that day.

We must have the courage to fight, and fight we will. BP: keep your mitts off Georgia

Georgia Conservancy V.P. of Advancement, Ric Felker, set up his first bee colony last Thursday with help from a member from Heard County, Jimmy Pressley. Ric and Jimmy are part of a small but growing movement to help the declining bee population.

Honeybees worldwide are falling prey to problems including disease, pests and the mysterious colony collapse disorder. Some scientists estimate a 50 percent decline in population since the second half of the 20^th century.

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Have you ever looked at a precious photo and wished you could sharpen the color or touch up the background and still hold onto the integrity of the image and the memory it invokes? The West Atlanta Watershed Alliance may have that opportunity in one of our adopted watersheds. We steward the watersheds of three creeks in West Atlanta: Utoy, Sandy, and Proctor Creeks. Through our current project Greening Vine City/English Avenue we will participate in reweaving the fabric of this community to include greenways, parks with water features, streetscapes, smart sustainable building techniques and green job opportunities for the residents.

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Keeping tabs on the capitol: “Water Stewardship” passes unanimously out of the House Natural Resources committee The House version of the Governor’s “Water Stewardship Act of 2010” passed unanimously out of the House Natural Resources committee today. House Bill 1094 (http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/sum/hb1094.htm) could be on the House floor next week for a full vote when the state legislature reconvenes.

HB 1094 seeks to create a culture of conservation in Georgia by:

-encouraging every state department to look at its water conservation practices

- requiring sub-metering for new multi-unit construction by July 01, 2012

- requiring the installation of low-flow toilets and fixtures for all new construction by July 01, 2012

- tracking unused water withdrawal permits for agriculture purposes, and establishing a process for those unused permits to revert back to the state

- scheduling outdoor watering of residential yards between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m.

The Georgia Conservancy supports HB 1094 and has worked with the Governor’s Office to make improvements to the bill. “The State of Georgia has come a long way this legislative session to addressing our serious water use and availability issues,” said Will Wingate, Vice President of Advocacy for the Conservancy. “We hope that Florida and Alabama will take note of Georgia’s new progressive approach to water conservation and water efficiency as we continue to negotiate with them on a water sharing agreement.”

Big Chicken Attacks the Brown Thrasher! Sign a Petition to Save the Brown Thrasher!

Big Chicken last week launched a broadside attack against the noble Brown Thrasher, the state bird of Georgia. A Georgia purveyor of chicken parts announced a drive to get the Georgia General Assembly to throw the Brown Thrasher out like a dishrag and replace it with a new state bird- the chicken! Yes, you read that right - it’s the fried chicken, the broiled chicken, the barbecued chicken that we all love to eat.

Don’t get us wrong. Georgians love our chicken at mealtime, but the idea of making the chicken our state bird crosses the line from sanity to insanity. The Georgia Conservancy will do everything in our power to make sure that such a travesty does not occur.

The Backstory: The Brown Thrasher became the state bird by a vote of the little school children of Georgia in 1928. In Suches, Hoboken, Rising Fawn, Schlatterville, The Rock, Attapulgus, Hopeful, Mt. Pleasant, Climax, St. Catherine’s Island, Birmingham, Stovall, and in other cities, towns, and hamlets, in hollers in the mountains and lean-tos in the Okefenokee came a resounding cry from the children to make the Brown Thrasher the State Bird!

Some say it all started with Mrs. Holtzclaw’s class in the Mocassin Precinct of Rabun County in the shadow of Rabun Bald. Little Timmy Davis saw a Brown Thrasher during recess one April day. It was in a pear tree near the school singing a beautiful song. Little Timmy asked Mrs. Holtzclaw what is was, and she said, “Why Timmy, it’s a Brown Thrasher. Isn’t it pretty?” Timmy decided right then and there that the Brown Thrasher possessed such arresting qualities of nobility, beauty that it must be recognized. He started a movement that reverberated from Rabun Gap to Tybee Light. When a vote was taken in every school house in the state, the Brown Thrasher was the overwhelming winner! On April 6, 1935, Governor Eugene Talmadge of Sugar Creek declared the Brown Thrasher the State Bird with the strong support of the Georgia people. Then on March 20, 1970, at the urging of the Garden Clubs of Georgia, the General Assembly in its wisdom, unanimously adopted a resolution making the Brown Thrasher the State Bird!

With this storied history, the Brown Thrasher has reigned as our State Bird for 82 years, and now, motivated by the apparent desire for profit, Big Chicken has launched a website (Flip the Bird) that calls for the General Assembly to ignore history and install the chicken as our new State Bird.

The Georgia Conservancy calls upon all Georgians to sign our petition to reject such a move.

Please join us today. We can’t let the Brown Thrasher down.

Since it cannot speak for itself, we must speak for it!

Pierre Howard