Results of GOS Spring 2000 Field Trip

The spring field trip featured a serene section of the Chattahoochee National Forest along Ivy Log Gap Rd. plus a few other sites in the Blairsville/Young Harris areas of extreme north central Georgia. The field trip began in the parking lot of the Ingles grocery store in Blairsville, where Willow Flycatchers were first discovered nesting in 1997 by Dot Freeman. Four of these flycatchers were located along the brushy edges of the parking lot, one of the few areas where this species is known to nest in Georgia. The field trip next included a stop along Byers Creek Rd. outside of Young Harris for low elevation piedmont species, and the last pavement before the Forest Service Rd. which eventually turns into Ivy Log Gap Rd. Birding this road is a hit-or-miss proposition, but the best tactic is to slowly drive the road with the vehicle windows open until activity is either detected by sight or sound, then walking along the road, listening carefully for the many species of warblers and other neotropical migrants which nest along the road. As is the case with many field trips such as this, hearing the birds and finding them in the canopy can be quite frustrating, but persistence and patience normally pays off. Twenty-three species of warblers were found on the trip, not all of them summer residents, but included were several Cerulean Warblers. Ivy Log Gap is one of the very few areas of the state where this species is suspected of nesting, and a target bird of the trip.