Georgia on My Blog: Spring Birds

April 19, 2014

Peachtree City Georgia was alive with the calls and vivid colours of spring birds when I visited. Brown Thrashers are the state bird and set out with their rollicking burbling call to show why. Their relative, the Northern Mockingbird, repeats similar loud burbling phrases just as loudly. Northern Cardinals have a beautiful song but they also have a short call – like a stone hitting another stone – that kept me looking around for a Slate-coloured Junco (a bird common in the Kootenays) a bird with a similar call. There were several woodpecker species in this woods – I saw Red-headed Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers. I even spotted Red-headed and Red-bellied females poking their heads out of nesting holes.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were visiting the flowers and feeders while Tufted Titmice (I love that name!) and Purple Finches raided the sunflower seeds in the yard. Carolina Chickadees, a subtler version of our Black-capped Chickadee scooted in and around the trees stashing the sunflower seeds they found.

My brother Ken and sister-in-law Lenna are just two of the species that frequent Peachtree City golf courses. Great Blue Herons, several Mockingbirds and Carolina Wrens were hanging around the greens. Greater Boat-tailed Grackles are a handsome, if annoying bird – we witnessed an onslaught of these birds on some unattended food at a restaurant in Savannah.

There are both Turkey and Black Vultures in Georgia – I can’t decide if a Black Vulture with its black, featherless head is more attractive than a Turkey Vulture with its red featherless head. Human opinion about vulture beauty may be swayed by wondering just where that head has been. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and perhaps only another vulture can truly judge.

There were so many more birds than I have shown here. But I hope you enjoy this sampling of the birds I saw.