On a glorious spring morning last weekend, about 15 of us Atlanta Audubon Society members went looking for birds along a stretch of the city’s newest green space, the Atlanta Beltline, a true gem.
From comments I heard, the Beltline, already described as an “emerald necklace around the city,” is even more magnificent than many of us first realized. Personally, I can’t say enough good things about it.
When fully developed, the Beltline will encircle Atlanta with a 33-mile network of multi-use trails — most of them converted from old railroad tracks — that promote walking, jogging, biking, birding and other activities. The trail system includes a core 22-mile corridor as well as numerous other extensions linking existing parks and trails.
Last weekend, in less than a mile of the Beltline between Ansley Mall and Piedmont Park in northeast Atlanta, we saw and heard more than 40 bird species during our two-hour walk. Most of them already were decked out in their bright, spiffy, spring breeding plumages.
Our co-leaders, Stan Chapman and Ralph Smith, offered tidbits about the species we saw. When a Northern flicker, a large, brownish woodpecker, landed on a dead tree in front of us, Stan noted that it also has been called the yellow-shafted flicker because, when it flies off, its wings reveal a flash of yellow. Then, as if on cue, the flicker took off, flashing its bright colors.
A prairie warbler, whose species is returning from winter grounds farther south, was foraging for caterpillars in an elm tree’s emerging foliage. When the morning sun shone on the warbler’s neon-bright yellow feathers, a collective “ooh” went up from us. A red-headed woodpecker atop a dead pine drew similar admiration.
An uncommon bird (for Atlanta) that we saw was a house wren. “For about every 50 [very common] Carolina wrens in Atlanta, there’s only about one house wren,” Stan said.
In the sky: The Lyrid meteor shower will be visible throughout next week, reaching a peak of about 15 meteors per hour Tuesday night, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Look to the northeast from about 2 a.m. until dawn.
The moon is new Saturday night. Venus is in the west just after dark and sets about two and half hours later. It will appear near the moon Tuesday night. Mars sets in the west just after dark. Jupiter is high in the west at dusk and sets around midnight. Saturn rises out of the east at about 10 p.m.
About the Author
