Going into fall, Heather and I realized that we needed to do very well with migratory birds if we had a chance of getting our numbers up. On a visit to Athens, we made a point to hit some local hotspots both in Athens and Atlanta to see if we could track any of these down. Surely fall would treat us better than spring?
Our first birding day started with some outreach. Heather and I are both big believers in volunteering and in sharing our love of birds with young people so, when Heather was asked to help out at an event to do both, she asked me if I could come as well. The event was VultureFest, an annual event at the Athens-Clarke County Landfill that educates visitors about the important role vultures play in the ecosystem. Heather and I would be manning a booth to discuss how vulture heads allow them to feed in rotting flesh without ruining their feathers.
When we weren't pouring wet, cooked spaghetti on children's heads, we were birding. Mostly, we birded some early-successional field habitat so we didn't see too many exciting birds. One bird we did see, though, was new and was one we had so oddly missed up to this point: a Rose-breasted Grosbeak! The gorgeous male was up in a tree right by the path and seeing it brought a sigh of relief from both Heather and I. With each common bird seen, it allows us to focus that much more on tracking down the rarities.
The event was a lot of fun but we were itching to do more birding. As soon as it was over, we raced over to Atlanta. The traffic was miserable, as usual, but we eventually reached our destination which was the Cochran Shoals Unit of Chattahoochee National Recreation Area. This popular park consisted of a straight-line bike path following the Chattahoochee River, with a few primitive trails branching off of it. It was filled with people and, yet, was incredibly birdy!
We noticed tons of movement in the trees along the river. American Redstarts were the most common bird, but hummingbirds, Magnolia Warblers, woodpeckers, and even Brown-headed Nuthatches occupied the trees as well. We walked along the river, then took a stroll through a low, marshy area where an American Woodcock was seen the day before. Of course, we missed that, but we did really enjoy the habitat diversity of the area and surrounding hillside. We walked what must have been two more miles before turning around the way we came. We thought that we had struck out again with new birds until a thrush caught our way. It was on the ground but rapidly flew up into some low branches. We both got our binoculars on it and were astonished to see our first Veery of the year! This was an especially satisfying bird for us, considering how many times we had missed it at places where it was "guaranteed".
We left here for a nearby park where some good migrants had been recently seen, Henderson Park. The park was full of screaming children and off-leash dogs, so our expectations were low. Those expectations, unfortunately, were met. I did get a quick look at a thrush, but it disappeared into the deep woods before I could get eyes on it. Ugh.
After this, we had one more spot to visit in Atlanta. This was our tried and true spot, Roger's Bridge Trail, which you might remember from way back in January. Well, we tried it this time and came up completely empty-handed save for some up-close deer sightings and the usual suspects from suburban Atlanta. With that failure, we headed back to Athens, bummed that our best efforts yet again proved to be not enough.
The following day, we set out to check on the botanical gardens and Sandy Creek Nature Center. Both were supposedly full of migrants that we needed. We walked so far, looked in so many trees, and came up with not a single new bird. Can you sense the frustration in my writer's voice? A whole weekend of birding with two new species, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Veery, to show for it. Unbelievable! Where were all the migrants?!
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