When I travel in Georgia, I try to avoid the interstates whenever possible. If it's daytime, the weather is half decent and I’m in no hurry to get some place, I prefer to take the back roads.
Cruising down country lanes, I can savor Georgia’s bucolic splendor -- country churches, hay fields, old barns, old mills, cows, pastures, roadside wildflowers and produce stands that sell vine-ripened tomatoes and sweet Georgia peaches.
I especially like seeing the birds along the way, such as a red-tailed hawk perched on a light pole, waiting to pounce on a mouse in the grassy roadside; a belted kingfisher, sitting on a power line along a water-filled ditch; an indigo bunting, perched atop a fencepost, and a great egret, standing motionless at the edge of a marsh.
This time of year, the most common “roadside bird” is the Eastern Kingbird. Returning home from Savannah last weekend on some rural roads in southeast Georgia, I saw what I guess was an average of one kingbird per every mile or so, perched on a fence or power line along the roadway. It is hard, in fact, to drive anywhere in rural Georgia in summer without seeing the robin-size kingbird.
Once known as the “bee martin,” the Eastern Kingbird is a member of the flycatcher family. A white band at the end of its dark-gray tail -- Georgia’s only bird with such a feature -- helps identify it. Its preferred habitat is open country. From its vantage point atop a fence or a tree in a pasture, it frequently will snatch passing insects. At the same time, it keeps a keen eye out for intruders in its territory.
Few birds, in fact, zealously guard their nests as the Eastern Kingbird. It lives up to its scientific name, Tyrannus tyrannus. The late Georgia ornithologist Thomas Burleigh said of the kingbird: "No bird is more fearless or aggressive in defending its nest, and the appearance of a crow or a hawk during the summer is the signal for a spirited pursuit that persists until the intruder is driven out of sight."
Indeed, as I drove home last weekend, I twice spied kingbirds hotly pursuing a hawk, mercilessly pecking and plucking the hapless trespasser as they flew.
Kingbirds usually nest twice in Georgia during the summer, with the first broods hatching out by mid-June. Come late August, however, the nesting season will be over. The bird’s pugnacity will ebb. Kingbirds then will gather in large flocks to migrate to winter homes as far south as Peru and Bolivia.
IN THE SKY: The moon is new today. On Monday, look for a thin crescent low in the west just after dark, said David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum. Mercury is very low in the east just before sunrise. Venus, shining brightly, is low in the west just after sunset and sets about two hours later. Venus will appear near the moon on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Mars sets in the west after midnight and will appear near the moon on Thursday night. Jupiter rises out of the east about four hours before sunrise. Saturn is high in the east at sunset.
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