In the 1960s, birders who did the Christmas Bird Count each year in Atlanta discontinued the count because they said it had become too difficult to find birds amid the city’s expanses of concrete and asphalt.
So, the birders moved the annual Atlanta count to Cobb County, which had a lot more birds, they said.
But around 2012, veteran birder Joy Carter of Atlanta questioned the notion that birds had become scarce in the city. “It wasn’t true,” she said. “I and a lot of other people were out doing birding on a regular basis in Atlanta and finding many good birds.”
So, she and others decided to start another annual count, the Intown Atlanta CBC, which gained official sanction from the National Audubon Society. Since 2013, the Intown count has been held every holiday season as part of Audubon’s nationwide CBC, a citizens-science project now in its 125th year.
Under Audubon’s rules, an official CBC can take place on any 24-hour day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. Each count covers a preapproved 15-mile diameter circle.
This season’s Intown Atlanta count was held on a cold day last weekend. Twelve birding teams fanned out across the city from the center of the count’s circle near the intersection of Briarcliff Road and Ponce de Leon Avenue. Birding spots included Grant, Piedmont and Centennial parks; Westview Cemetery; Constitution Lakes park; Standing Peachtree on the Chattahoochee River and several other places. Even some industrial parks and landfills were included.
My team, led by Arnold Dill and his son, Jason, covered Fernbank Forest and the links and grassy roughs of Druid Hills Golf Club. We counted 33 species.
Altogether, the 12 teams tallied 91 species, including a wild turkey, a bald eagle, Baltimore orioles, red-headed woodpeckers, summer tanagers (unusual for this time of year), killdeer, sapsuckers, sparrows, ducks, bluebirds and many others. “The birds don’t care if they live in the city or the suburbs as long as the food and the habitat for them are there,” Carter said.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be full on Monday — the “Wolf Moon,” as some Native Americans called January’s full moon. Venus and Saturn are in the west at sunset and set two hours later. Mars rises in the east at sunset and will appear near the moon on Monday. Jupiter also is in the east at sunset.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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