Before retiring four years ago, I regularly rode the MARTA train from Decatur to the Five Points station, from which I walked to work in downtown Atlanta.
Now, my train riding consists mostly of trips to the airport or to downtown for special events.
Never did I think, though, that I would take the train downtown for a spell of bird-watching.
But that’s what I did early the other morning — hopped on the train to go birding in Centennial Olympic Park in the heart of the city.
With binoculars slung around my neck and a birding field guide poking from my coat pocket, I got more than a few curious looks from my fellow early morning train riders.
Bird-watching in downtown Atlanta? It might sound strange, but Centennial Olympic Park, sitting in the shadow of CNN headquarters and some of the city’s tallest skyscrapers, has become the latest birding hot spot for metro birders.
The Georgia birders’ chat line has been filled during the past few weeks with reports of a variety of songbirds spied in the park, including a persistent flock of several warbler species.
Veteran birders (some of them photographers) began flocking to the park about a month ago after birder Nathan Farnau, who works downtown, reported on the chat line that he was regularly seeing a lot of different songbirds there, including the warblers.
Farnau, who lives in East Atlanta, said he goes bird-watching in the park mostly during lunch breaks.
During my two hours there the other morning, I saw some of the warbler species (ovenbird, Tennessee warbler, common yellowthroat, a female hooded warbler) and several other birds, including ruby-crowned kinglet, mockingbird, gray catbird, Eastern phoebe, white-throated sparrow, cardinal and American robin. A bonus was a large Cooper’s hawk.
As of this week, birders have spied 10 warbler species — including a Nashville warbler, which is rare here — in the park’s lingering flock.
The question is: Why are so many of these little birds still here? Several of them are neo-tropical migrants and should be well-ensconced in their winter homes in Central and South America by now.
No one knows for sure why they’re still here, but a speculation is that the skyscrapers’ bright, night-time lights may have something to do with it.
Other bird notes: The first of this year's 26 Christmas bird counts across Georgia will take place next weekend.
Spectacular, high-flying flocks of sandhill cranes, headed south, are starting to pass over the metro area.
Cedar waxwings (winter birds in Georgia) are coming in. Rufous hummingbirds are showing up at some metro feeders.
In the sky: The moon will be last quarter Tuesday, rising about midnight and setting about midday, said David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum. Mercury is low in the west just after sunset and sets about an hour later. Mars rises out of the east about 10 p.m. and will appear near the moon Sunday night. Jupiter is high in the south at sunset and sets in the west about midnight. Saturn rises out of the east about an hour after midnight and will appear near the moon Wednesday and Thursday nights.
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