With the pandemic resurging across the state, Georgia Audubon is hosting a lineup of virtual and digital events for new and veteran bird enthusiasts during the holiday season. With a variety of free and paid events, everyone is sure to find something of interest. Here’s what is in store for the next few weeks:
 
Friday, December 4, at 9:00 AM: Virtual Field Trip with Georgia Audubon
​Georgia Audubon Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/georgiaaudubon/)
FREE
Join us on the Georgia Audubon Facebook page for a virtual field trip with Georgia Audubon staff and volunteer trip leaders as they explore their yards or nearby birdy patches and talk about what they're seeing. 

Webinar: Climate Watch Information Session
Thursday, December 3, at 7:00 PM
FREE

Georgia Audubon will be hosting a FREE info session on how to participate in Climate Watch, a nation-wide community science effort for bird conservation, on Thursday, December 3, at 7:00 PM. Learn more or register at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/digital-resources.html.
 
Webinar: The Effects of Urban Noise and Light Pollution on Avian Species 
Tuesday, December 8, at 7:00 PM
FREE
 
With the increase of people moving into urban areas every day, anthropogenic (human-produced) sources of light are having a drastic effect on near and inhabiting wildlife. Birds have been particularly useful to study when looking at these urbanization effects, specifically urban noise and light pollution. Join Lauren Pharr, Master of Science student at North Carolina State University, for a discussion of her findings and how urbanization continues to affect local bird species. Learn more or register at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/digital-resources.html.
 
 
Webinar: eBird Workshop
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
6:30 to 8:00 PM

Georgia Audubon Member: $10
Non-member fee: $15
 
Locating birds, trip planning, record keeping, and participating in community science have all become easier thanks to new, easy-to-use technologies. Join Adam Betuel, Georgia Audubon’s director of conservation, to learn the various uses of eBird, the free online checklist program that is revolutionizing the way information about birds is collected and shared. This workshop will cover how to submit a checklist, track your sightings, explore the vast database of eBird, and more. Additionally, you will receive a brief introduction to the program Merlin, which aides in bird identification at home and abroad. No prior experience needed. Learn more or register at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/workshops.html.
 
 
Saturday, December 12, at 10:00 AM: Virtual Birdability Field Trip with Georgia Audubon,
​Georgia Audubon Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/georgiaaudubon/)
FREE
 
Georgia Audubon is partnering with Birdability to host virtual field trips highlighting accessible trails, birders who experience accessibility challenges, and birds from around the country. Birdability focuses on removing barriers to access for birders with mobility challenges, blindness or low vision, intellectual or developmental disabilities (including autism), mental illness, being Deaf or Hard of Hearing or other health concerns. Join us as we explore trails with the following guests in the following locations: Virginia Rose, Birdability founder and wheelchair user, Austin, Texas; Corina Newsome, host, Atlanta, Georgia; Freya McGregor, Occupational Therapist with a dodgy knee, Louisville, Kentucky; and Joe Watts, an Alabama Audubon board member, along with a guest who uses a wheelchair and crutches, Birmingham, Alabama.
 
Birdability is dedicated to making birding accessible for everybody by addressing the exclusion of people with disabilities in outdoor recreation. Learn more at audubon.org/birdability.
 
Webinar: Georgia Audubon Annual Meeting and Virtual Holiday Party
Sunday, December 13, 2020
3:30 to 4:30 PM
FREE

Join Georgia Audubon for our Annual Meeting and Virtual Holiday Party on Sunday, December 13. We'll have a short annual meeting where we will introduce our newly installed Board of Directors and bid a fond farewell to our outgoing Board members. We'll also hear updates on Georgia Audubon's work from Jared Teutsch, executive director, Adam Betuel, director of conservation; Melanie Furr, director of education; and Corina Newsome, community engagement manager.  

We'll have door prizes and the event will culminate in our raffle drawing for a two-night stay for two at The Lodge at Little St. Simons Island! You don't have to be present to win. Sign up for the event or purchase raffle tickets at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/monthly-meetings.html.  
 
Georgia Audubon Bird Stories: Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen
​Friday, December 18, at 9:30 AM
FREE

Join us on December 18, at 9:30 AM for Georgia Audubon Bird Stories! We will be reading Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen and learning about our favorite nocturnal friends. Don't forget to bring your imagination. Learn more or register at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/georgia-audubon-bird-stories.html.
 
Georgia Audubon Bird Stories: Beauty and the Bea​k, by Deborah Lee Rose
Friday, January 22, at 9:30 AM
FREE

Join us on January 22, at 9:30 AM for our first Georgia Audubon Bird Stories of 2021. We will be starting off this year with some non-fiction as we dive into Beauty and the Beak, by Deborah Lee Rose. We will be learning all about how technology can be used for wildlife rescue. Bring your curious mind! Learn more or register at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/georgia-audubon-bird-stories.html.
 
Webinar: Georgia Audubon Monthly Meeting
Sunday, January 24, at 3:30 PM
Audubon’s American History with Gregory Nobles
Registration: FREE

In addition to being a remarkable painter of birds, John James Audubon was a lively teller of tales. In Ornithological Biography, his five-volume, 3000-page companion to The Birds of America, Audubon interspersed dozens of stories about the American people, ranging from their environmental habits to their social behaviors to their race relations. While some of these stories are more true than others, together they give us a fascinating view of the ways Audubon understood his adopted country. They also invite us to look at Audubon himself as a writer of both myth and history. In this session, we will explore several of Audubon’s stories to discuss—and no doubt debate—how we understand his portrayal of the past from our own perspective of the present.
 
Gregory Nobles is Professor Emeritus of History at Georgia Tech and the author of John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). He divides his time between Atlanta, where he is a member of Georgia Audubon, and Northport, MI, where he is a member of Michigan Audubon.
 
Copies of the book are available for purchase via our website. Learn more or sign up at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/monthly-meetings.html.  
 
In-person Field Trips (multiple dates and locations): Georgia Audubon has resumed limited in-person field trips around the metro area with social distancing measures in place. The field trips are free to attend but registration is required and guests are asked to adhere to certain safety precautions, including wearing a mask. Learn more or sign up at https://www.georgiaaudubon.org/field-trips.html
 
Georgia Audubon is building places where birds and people thrive. We create bird-friendly communities through conservation, education, and community engagement.

By Corina Newsome, Community Engagement Manager

I’ve been thinking about community a lot lately. I, along with many of you, are feeling the effects the extended physical isolation, making us long for closeness with others more than usual. I also recently took the new position of Community Engagement Manager here at Georgia Audubon, a job centered around connecting, building, and enriching communities of people around a common goal: building places where birds and people thrive.
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I’m also a scientist. I ask questions about the natural world and go to great lengths to find patterns that shed light on the answers. In those efforts, I’ve gotten a front row seat to witness just how many problems for which nature has created its own solutions. However, those solutions haven’t stopped at providing behavioral or morphological survival adaptations for the species which possess them—humans have started to key-in on nature’s playbook that is millions of years in the making.

Biomimicry, defined by the Biomimicry Institute as the “practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design problems” has brought about some of the very greatest advances in human technology. In the energy sector, the physical shapes of maple seeds and kingfishers provided the blueprint for harnessing wind energy. In the agricultural industry, food production has been maximized by learning from the natural growth pattern of prairies. Termites mounds have helped inform sustainable architecture. Mosquitoes’ adaptations for blood extraction have informed new technologies for medical equipment. There are countless examples of the ways in which nature has directly informed how we optimize our structures and operations across disciplines.

Humans are facing challenges that we have no real precedent for solving. Our solutions must address energy, food, medicine, along with many other dimensions of human survival. But there’s one dimension that encompasses them all: community. Every solution we craft, every plan we implement, is done so by people and for people; by communities and for communities. This necessarily begs the question: What can nature tell us about the best ways we should live, work, and problem solve in community? As you might guess, nature has quite a lot to tell us.

Billy Almon, a friend, incredible science storyteller, and astrobiofuturist, recently shared some of the most profound insights I have ever heard regarding this question, and looked to the birds for the answers. During a presentation earlier this year for the 100Kin10 Summit, Billy dove deep into the science of murmurations, a phenomenon seen in European Starlings. Anywhere between hundreds and tens of thousands of birds will fly together in highly coordinated formation. The problem they are trying to solve? Avoiding predation by a raptor that is threatening the flock.  They fly in extremely close proximity with one another, turning on a dime to accomplish this feat.

How do they do it, and what can we learn from them? Billy described two major elements of flock dynamics during a murmuration that were particularly applicable to human communities. First, he explained that there is never a single bird that leads the flock’s direction for the entire duration of the murmuration. Different birds will take the lead depending on a number of factors, such as being the most familiar with the location through which they are flying at any given time. This allows the flock to move dynamically and nearly instantaneously. This element of flock coordination was particularly profound and has direct implications for communities collectively responding to problems. The ability to surrender leadership when another person’s strengths and perspectives are best suited to lead in a given moment gives that community the ability to respond quickly and most efficiently to the needs at hand; such agility can be crucial in times of crisis.

The second murmuration characteristic Billy described is that these large flocks of starlings are made up of individuals who are all responding and paying the most attention to the movement of birds closest to them. This allows for the accumulation of smaller, precise movements that produce the beautiful, fluid progression of the flock as a whole. I have begun to understand now more than ever the importance of knowing and responding to the needs of the communities immediately around me. In a society of stark divides, whether they be socioeconomic, racial, or of other natures, people can live completely unaware of the state of their own neighbors, being most drawn to solving problems far away. I can only imagine the kind of large-scale progress we could achieve by building relationships with and addressing the needs of the people in our own communities. 

We have a lot of problems to solve, and a big world to think about. It is becoming increasingly clear that we need to seek out and apply the solutions that nature has already crafted. My hope is that in this time of urgent problem solving, we would continue to ask: “What can nature tell us?”

Georgia Audubon was disheartened and dismayed by the recent article in Politico detailing a history of “intimidation and threats towards women and people of color” within National Audubon Society. Despite sharing the Audubon name, Georgia Audubon is an independent organization with separate membership, board leadership, finances, and strategic focus. As an organization, Georgia Audubon is working proactively to center equity, diversity, and inclusiveness throughout our operations.  

Just as we value and recognize the critical importance of biodiversity for healthy ecosystems, we recognize that the diversity of communities across this nation must be represented in all levels of leadership within our organization. It is imperative that we intentionally integrate these values throughout our events, programs, and outreach.
​
Georgia Audubon is committed to building an equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization and to reflecting this commitment throughout our operations. We acknowledge that while we have made some progress in this space, there is much work left to do both as an individual organization and as part of a larger network of conservation organizations. We look forward to continuing these conversations and to holding ourselves accountable to historically marginalized communities and people groups by positioning our resources to best serve those communities. 

Article by Stan Gray, Ogeechee Audubon
Photo by Pam Smith, Ogeechee Audubon

The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus)  has been undergoing one of the most profound chronic long-term and acute short-term declines of any North American bird species. This is the conclusion of the International Rusty Blackbird Working Group, a group of biologists, conservationists, and other professionals, formed in 2005 and dedicated to researching and reversing this decline. Estimates based on community science projects place the total population loss since the 1960’s at 85 to 95 percent. Despite extensive recent studies, the causes of this decline are still somewhat speculative, and point to no one factor. However, one of the key contributors appears to be the dramatic loss of wooded wetlands on southeastern wintering grounds.
 
The area just north and west of Savannah still contains numerous patches of intact wooded freshwater wetlands, although in many cases under increasing pressures from population growth. One such location is the 254-acre campus of the Savannah Christian Preparatory School (SCPS). Apart from the school buildings and athletic facilities, the campus is composed of and surrounded by an expansive wetlands complex.
​
In 2011, returning to SCPS for a mid-afternoon Great Backyard Bird Count after having been introduced to the location on the most recent Christmas Bird Count, Ogeechee Audubon Society (OAS) member Stan Gray encountered a sizable flock of Rusty Blackbirds, larger than from any other recent local reports. Several subsequent visits gave indication that this was indeed a special wintering spot for the blackbirds. Alerting other OAS birders about the phenomenon, visits and recorded observations grew over the next several years. A high count of 395 birds was recorded in December 2015. Birders visited at various times of the day, but one interesting pattern became apparent: the highest counts were being recorded in late afternoon, and that coincided with the birds emerging from the wetlands to congregate on the school grounds proper, in large lawn areas, or in and around an old grove of pecan trees.

Armed with a growing body of observational data, Gray uncovered a doctoral dissertation written in 2013 by University of Georgia graduate student Patricia Newell (see http://rustyblackbird.org/wp-content/uploads/Newell2013RUBLDissertation.pdf.) The dissertation focused on the winter ecology of the Rusty Blackbird. In it, Newell summarized that a suburban landscape composed of a patchwork mosaic of forested wetlands, grassy expanses, and pecan groves seemed to provide the blackbirds with the best resources for wintering. She had independently noted many of the same behavioral observations that the birders of Ogeechee Audubon were seeing at SCPS. OAS birders were observing Rusty Blackbirds at other nearby wetlands, but never in numbers approaching the sizable flocks encountered regularly at SCPS. When observations were made in early-mid mornings (the typical period when birders take to the field), counts in single digits, often just one or two birds, were recorded. Even at SCPS, morning counts yielded low numbers. Other than a “sentinel” bird perched high above the wetland floor, the remainder of the flock foraged deep within the forested wetland, barely if at all detectable as they rummaged through leaf litter for aquatic invertebrates. Access to these wetland foraging areas is often poor at best, the dark rusty blackish birds disguise quite well, and counts have probably been seriously underestimated.

In 2019, SCPS received funding to install a new main entrance gate, which would enhance the physical security of this private school. Although it has always been private, access to the campus had not been tightly controlled, especially on weekends. OAS members had come to be recognized by school officials, and birders frequented the campus. The new gate changed the issue of accessibility, and with it a fear that birders would no longer be able to monitor the status of the Rusties (and the multitude of other bird species inhabiting the diverse natural landscape of the campus).

A meeting ensued in the summer of 2019 between school officials and a committee from OAS led by President Leslie Weichsel, the importance of the campus as a vital wintering habitat for Rusty Blackbirds was explained, and a cooperative agreement was reached allowing OAS to field a dedicated team of birders having access (otherwise restricted) to the campus at regularly scheduled, pre-announced times. In addition to Rusty Blackbird surveys, the team was also granted permission to perform comprehensive surveys of the entire 250+ acre campus periodically throughout the year. The data resulting from all this survey work would be shared with SCPS officials (and posted on eBird) in support of future funding initiatives leading towards enhancement of the natural resources of the property.

Monitoring the 2019 fall migration of Rusties and their impending approach, the first OAS team survey was conducted November 3. No blackbirds were sighted that day, but the next survey on November 10 yielded 28, the first recorded seasonal eBird sighting within the surrounding 200+ miles. From then through March 22, 2020, a total of 18 surveys were conducted (all on Sunday afternoons when the campus is least active), essentially one per week. Consistent with previous years, the highest count occurred in mid-December, 138 birds. Numbers varied somewhat from week to week, but typically 60-90 birds frequented the grounds. Significant movement out of the area, presumably back towards the breeding grounds in northern Canada and Alaska began the week of March 2, and the last four birds were spotted March 22; one week later none remained.
​
The OAS survey team consists of a core group of five birders, joined frequently by several other Society members. Many photos were taken throughout this first survey period for documentation and posting on eBird (several of which are included herein). Over the course of the period, skills in identification improved immensely for all through intense observations, especially when mixed foraging flocks of Rusties, Common Grackles, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and Red-winged Blackbirds would commingle. Team member and author Diana Churchill published a full-page article in the November 26, 2019 issue of the Savannah Morning News informing the public of the OAS survey initiative at SCPS. Key school officials have become increasingly engaged and supportive of the effort, and much potential exists to use it in student environmental education programs or projects in the future. Surveys will re-commence in early November, and although the schedule or frequency has not been finalized, OAS plans to take advantage of the extensive baseline data created this past winter to do monitor changes in population dynamics annually. Short- and long-term survey results at this site will hopefully help inform the extensive research being conducted to reverse the decline of this intriguing, yet highly vulnerable blackbird species.

[Note: the survey team has recorded detailed observational data via eBird on each sighting of Rusty Blackbirds at SCPS. To view a discussion of these observed behavioral patterns, the reader is invited to explore the eBird Species Map for Rusty Blackbird, then enter Savannah Christian Preparatory School for location. By clicking on the point designator for “hotspot,” all reports since 2011 can be accessed. Additionally, the aerial photography demonstrates the patchwork mosaic of wetlands and other supporting manmade features, ie. grassy expanses and pecan groves, on site.]

By Georgia LaMar, Avian Advocate Volunteer
 
When did you decide to make your home an Audubon sanctuary? - I decided to create a haven friendly to wildlife in 2016 when we moved to this property and undertook a process to focus on native plants and a friendly environment.  The decision to apply for sanctuary status was an idea for a birthday gift for Mark in January of this year.
 
How would you describe your style? - I have an organic style.  I placed certain features, like fencing, parking, vegetable garden, chicken coop; and then the rest filled in.  We are fortunate to have different areas; sun, shade, dry, moist...so I had a lot to work with.  And the yard had to be dog friendly!

What is the one plant you can’t do without? - Hands down favorite plant is River Birch (Betula nigra.)
 
What plant gives you the most bang for the buck? - Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) has outperformed my expectations, and also Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia.)
 
Do you have a favorite trick? - As I am self-taught, with a strong desire to be a proper steward for my little patch on this planet, I read and listen. I pay attention to what grows and where, and that informs future decisions.  
 

What is the story on the Linden Tree that is in your yard? - My maternal grandfather took the name of his family farm upon maturity, as is the custom in Norway for a child to take the family name or the farm/land name. He immigrated to New Jersey, where my mother, and I grew up. My name Lynn honors my mother’s maiden name Lindland (land of the lindens). It became important to me to plant a linden tree in my yard, and it is flourishing. I cannot wait to see it bloom!

About Linden Trees:
(Linden trees fall within the Tilia genus and are part of the Tilioideae (or Tiliaceae) subfamily. This same family also includes trees and shrubs like the Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), phalsa (Grewia subinaequalis), durian (Durio zibethinus), and the Illawarra flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolius). Linden trees have heart-shaped leaves, similar to Aspen trees, that sometimes look lopsided when one side of the heart shape forms bigger than the other. Long bracts form above clusters of small round fruit that produce a drupe. The linden tree's flowers—a favorite of bees—make their showing from May to July. Some beekeepers cultivate lindens specifically to boost honey production. You can eat the tree's leaves and tea can be made from its flowers. – from The Spruce Magazine.)
 

Georgia Audubon recently welcomed Sergio Sabat-Bonilla as the new Coastal Sea Grant Fellow. The position is the culmination of a partnership between Georgia Audubon, the Jekyll Island Authority, and the Georgia Sea Grant.

Headquartered on Jekyll Island, the Sea Grant Fellow will develop programs that engage and activate local communities, specifically the BIPOC communities of Glynn and McIntosh Counties, and develop a replicable, inclusive community strategy that brings conservation, birdwatching, and community science to the public. He will also participate in bird monitoring activities, including habitat monitoring, bird banding, and other field work.

“Georgia Audubon is eager to expand our capacity on the coast and the addition of a Sea Grant Fellow position is a tremendous start,” says Jared Teutsch, Georgia Audubon executive director. “In this position, Sergio will be working with other coastal conservation organizations to bolster shorebird conservation efforts and to reach out and engage with diverse communities to introduce them to the wonder and joy of birds.”

A native of Puerto Rico, Sabat-Bonilla has a B.S. in Biology from the University of Central Oklahoma. He is currently a master’s student at Georgia Southern University, where he is studying how aquatic macroinvertebrate communities respond to hydrological variations in wetlands as expected from climate change models.

About Georgia Audubon: Georgia Audubon is building places where birds and people thrive. We create bird-friendly communities through conservation, education, and community engagement.

About Georgia Sea Grant: Georgia Sea Grant provides research, education, training and science-based outreach to assist Georgia in solving problems and realizing opportunities for its coastal and marine environments. By advancing research, education and training, and outreach, UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant promotes the economic, cultural and environmental health of Georgia’s coast and prepare citizens to become good stewards of coastal ecosystems and watershed resources.

About the Jekyll Island Authority:  As stewards of Jekyll Island’s past, present and future, the Jekyll Island Authority is dedicated to maintaining the delicate balance between nature and humankind.

by Dottie Head, Director of Communications

Georgia Audubon and the Town Center Community Alliance, non-profit partner of the Town Center Community Improvement District (CID), recently partnered on a project to install a 12-foot-tall Chimney Swift tower along the Noonday Creek Trail in Kennesaw. Designed to mimic an actual chimney, the tower will serve as roosting and nesting habitat for these Chimney Swifts. The beautiful artwork on the tower was painted by the Atlanta-based muralist, Christina Ward. In addition to the tower, the site will include educational signage that highlights the value of the swifts and constructed towers.
 
Still a fairly common sight in the metro area, Chimney Swifts are being forced to respond to additional threats across their range—from chimney capping, to tree removal, to a decreasing supply of insects due to pesticides, pollution, and climate change. Other issues, such as building collisions and challenges on swifts’ wintering grounds are exacerbating population declines. This is the fifth tower Georgia Audubon has constructed in the last couple of years with three more in the works for the coming months.
 
“The Chimney Swift is one of Georgia Audubon’s current focal species, and we have been working with various organizations across the metro area to create habitat for this aerial insectivore,” says Adam Betuel, director of conservation for Georgia Audubon. “We were delighted to partner with Town Center to build this 12-foot tower, which we hope will not only provide nesting and roosting habitat for swifts, but also educate the many people who walk along the Noonday Creek trail about the importance of supporting these birds. The Noonday Creek Trail has long been a location for free Georgia Audubon field trips.”
 
Chimney Swifts have specially adapted feet that allow them to cling to the inside of hollow structures, like these towers. The swifts build saucer-shaped nests made out of twigs glued together with the birds' saliva. Chimney Swifts rarely allow other birds (including other swifts) to use "their" tower while they are nesting, but in late summer, hundreds or even thousands of individual birds may roost in one large chimney creating a spectacular site overhead as they flock into the chimney near dusk. In exchange for the roosting site, Chimney Swifts will provide natural pest control as each swift may consume up to 1,000 flying insects, including mosquitos, each day!
 
“Enhancing our greenspace is one of the pillars of our mission and this tower will do just that,” adds Director of the Alliance Jennifer Hogan. “We are looking forward to observe this remarkable site as the birds begin to call this installment ‘home.’ The Alliance and the Town Center CID both have a foundation of partnerships achieving impactful projects such as this, so we are grateful to be able to collaborate with Georgia Audubon to complete this tower.”
 
Since the 1950s, Chimney Swifts and other aerial insectivores have experienced drastic population declines due to several factors, such as the increased use of pesticides that harms their main prey, flying insects, and the loss of swifts’ nesting and roosting habitat (formerly hollow trees and more recently, man- made chimneys). Chimney Swifts, now listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, have responded to these challenges by increasingly flocking to urban areas that offer abandoned factory smokestacks or historical home chimneys that have been left uncapped and which mimic their natural breeding and roosting sites.
 
About Georgia Audubon: Georgia Audubon is building places where birds and people thrive. We create bird-friendly communities through conservation, education, and community engagement.
 
About the Town Center Community Alliance: Established by the Town Center CID in 2015, the Town Center Community Alliance is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to shaping the future of Town Center by supporting and funding beautification, greenspace and other quality of life initiatives that help foster a sense of place within the district. The Alliance seeks to preserve and enhance the area’s natural beauty while creating opportunities for outdoor recreation by developing parks, trails, landscapes, artwork displays and other quality of life initiatives.
 
About Town Center Community Improvement District: Founded in 1997, the Town CID is dedicated to the betterment of the Town Center area through transportation infrastructure, safety improvements, beautification and other projects that enhance property value by increasing interest and investment in the community. The Town Center CID utilizes funds from voluntary commercial real estate taxes to implement its projects. For more information, please visit www.towncentercid.com.
 
About the Artist, Christina Ward: Christina Ward is an Atlanta mural artist and international conservationist, whose bright and engaging works capture the uniqueness and preciousness of the world's creatures.  Using her art as a form of activism, Christina hopes to inspire people to look deeper into the subject and commit to participating in conservation initiatives. For more on her work, or commission inquiries, please visit www.Xtinapaints.com and www.Savethegiants.org.

By Zaria Dyer, conservation intern

An interview with Kit Robey, children's author and gardener, about the certification of her yard as a Georgia Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary. 
 
Can you give us a brief description of your children's book Hare and the Big Green Lawn?
In Hare and the Big Green Lawn, Hare moves in and lets his big green lawn die under the high hot sun. Hare’s neighbors, Bobcat, Raven, and Skunk, disapprove, to say the least! While they toil and clip, Hare crosses his paws for luck and swings in a hammock. One day, the neighbors march solemnly up to Hare to give him an ultimatum. But instead of a big mess they discover that Hare’s lawn has changed into a beautiful meadow filled with buzzing bees and wildflowers that brings them all together.

How did you get interested in conservation, and how did that lead you to get your property certified?
I was introduced to the idea of conservation when I was a little girl and my father placed 20 acres or so of my childhood home, Silver Creek Farm, into the Soil Bank. He was reimbursed, in part, by Wisconsin, for leaving his field fallow instead of tilling the soil for timothy. In the meadow that summer I found the oven-like nest of a meadowlark.

What is the one plant you cannot live without?
Oakleaf Hydrangea is native and looks fantastic year-round. My plants are in full luscious white blooms now, in late spring. During summer the blooms will turn green and by fall, bronze. Then I can bring them inside for a dried bouquet. In the winter, the leaves turn colors and then drop, leaving marvelous sculpture-like branches until spring, when the buds spring forth again.

Which plant gives you the most bang for your buck?
Well, again Oakleaf hydrangea, but there are various holly species in my yard, all of which provide green throughout the year and red berries during fall and winter. I’ve seen Brown Thrashers, Cardinals, and, of course, Cedar Waxwings feasting on those berries. These holly bushes also provide wonderful shelter for the birds.

Do you have a favorite trick to maintain your property and plants?
I am a bit sheepish to admit this, but if I have a trick, it is to leave maintenance up to nature alone. To a large extent, I leave pruning to the wind, and wildflowers to the rain. I’m always looking for ways to improve upon this idea. We have a large downed tree in our back woods, and I wouldn’t have it removed for anything. Come winter, there will be Winter Wrens in the shelter of its tangled branches. Eventually the tree will disintegrate and enrich the soil, where I plan to plant trilliums.

Reviewed by Anne McCallum

A real-life detective story. The author, a journalist who survived the Iraqi War with a bad case of PTSD, finds solace in fly fishing. One day he learns that one of the most promising up-and-coming fly-tiers of the younger generation (and a virtuoso classical flautist to boot) stole a massive number of irreplaceable exotic feathers and skins from a major natural history museum in England. This sounds to him like a story ready made to get his mind off a messy war and its tragic aftermath, and he jumps into it.
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The book opens with the crime, but then backs WAY up to the real beginning of the story—the amazing life and collecting expeditions of Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin’s contemporary, who overcame huge personal disasters to become one of the greatest names in biogeography. The next chapter examines the museums that gathered and preserved these kinds of amazing collections for posterity—particularly the Tring Museum of uber-rich Walter Rothchild. Then came the millenary feather craze that almost wiped out the exotic birds themselves before women themselves began the pushback that lead to the legal protections that have become the bulwark against extinction. While wealthy women were sporting exotic feathers on their heads, wealthy men were using them for fly fishing on their estates—an avocation that has today morphed into the cultish fine art of fly-tying.

Enter young Edwin Rist, who, at 22 was so consumed with fly-tying that he was willing to risk his stellar musical career to stage a heist of some of the most gorgeous and irreplaceable Tring specimens to supply his own needs and to sell on secretive online sites.

Guilty or not guilty, your honor? The remainder of the book explores Rist’s motivations, his methods, the discovery and solving of the crime, the plea, his co-conspirators, and the frustrating search for what remains of the stolen goods. Along the way the author meets one angry scientist, Dr. Richard Plum, who happens “to be looking for a journalist willing to shine a light on a hobby that he wanted to stigmatize into oblivion.” (188).
Those of us in the Early Birds Book Club all agreed we loved the book!  We learned new and fascinating things in every chapter. The last chapters are less enjoyable but no less important as we learn of the limits of current legal efforts to thwart such crimes (unless the crime involves rhino horn or ivory!)