DESCRIPTION: The Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area (WMA) offers one of the best overall birding sites in Georgia, especially in the fall. The habitat consists of a mixed pine/hardwood forest, floodplain forest, freshwater marsh shrubland, weed fields and diked ponds. Specialties include mottled duck, least bittern, glossy ibis, painted bunting, rails, sparrows and ducks. We will be birding all accessible areas, looking for early arriving sparrows and ducks, as well as lingering migrants. Lunch will not be provided but there are several good restaurants in the area.
BIRDS:
Mottled Duck, Least Bittern, Glossy Ibis, Painted Bunting,
rails, sparrows and ducks.
Trip Rigor: Easy – two miles of easy walking on weedy dikes and paths.
Recommended
Needs: Boots, long sleeves and pants, insect repellent, sun protection, water, snacks, binoculars.
Your
Leaders:
Todd Schneider is a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division, Nongame Wildlife-Natural Heritage Section. Since 1993 he has served as the Georgia Breeding Bird Atlas Project Coordinator and has been involved in many major state, regional, and national conservation initiatives. He assists with the coordination of the DNR’s annual coast-wide shorebird survey and is very well versed in shorebird ID and habitat.
Tim Keyes is currently
a Wildlife Interpretive Specialist for the Department of Natural
Resources at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield,
Georgia. He oversees wildlife education programs for adults
and kids, and is involved in a number of ongoing bird research
projects. He completed a Master of Science degree in biogeography,
studying forest nesting migratory songbirds in the southern
Appalachians. Before graduate school Tim had the opportunity
to study birds in Minnesota, Massachusetts and Portugal. He
currently serves on the board of the Atlanta Audubon society,
and is their field trip coordinator.
Paul Sykes is
a wildlife research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey,
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Athens, Georgia field station.
After graduating from North Carolina State University, he
worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1967 to
1992, when he transferred to his current position. A life-long
birder with an emphasis on North American species, Paul holds
a position in the Top 10 Birders of North America list, with
an American Birding Association (ABA) Area Life List of 841species.
Some of his major contributions to the birding world include
recording for North America the first and only sighting of
the Yellow-throated Bunting, first recorded nestings of the
Whooper Swan and Brambling, and with others the first nesting
of the White-tailed Eagle and documenting the first record
of the Mangrove Swallow. Paul has just completed the final
year of a six-year study on the annual survival in the eastern
population of the Painted Bunting along the south Atlantic
Coasts, North Carolina to Florida.
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