Wednesday, February 7, 2001

Unusual birds seen flocking to Fayette

By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
SallieS@Juno.com

With sightings of two of the smallest and one of the largest species of bird this winter, it has been one of Peachtree City's more interesting seasons of recent years, according to birding enthusiast David Cree.

Cree managed to photograph eight sandhill cranes grazing in the grasses not far from his home near the northeasternmost corner of Lake Kedron just last weekend. While there, he flushed a sedge wren and captured it, too, on film.

The wren is probably the bird that was included for the first time ever in Peachtree City reports to the National Audubon Society's 2000 Christmas Bird Count, since it was seen in the same area, opines CBC coordinator Brock Hutchins of Fayetteville.

Described in the new "Sibley Guide to Birds" as a secretive inhabitant of areas with dense grass and scattered bushes, the sedge wren is smaller and less brightly marked than the familiar Carolina wren. The one he shot stayed in plain view, scolding for many minutes, Cree reported.

The sandhills are tall waders and, to the inexperienced eyes of local golf cart riders passing them unawares, may have appeared to be great blue herons. Herons are generally solitary, however; sandhill cranes typically congregate in flocks of 100 or more. A flock of about 145 was reported in the 1989 CBC, a year when sandhills were seen frequently overflying both Fayette and Coweta counties.

Those Cree reported to the Rare Bird Alert of the Georgia Ornithological Society may have dropped out of a flock passing through, en route to or from winter grounds in Florida, the Sibley Guide suggests. In any case, they were gone in a matter of hours, Cree said, but not before he snapped their picture among Lake Kedron's winter-resident Canada goose flock.

A rufous hummingbird, far from her breeding grounds of western North America, was banded here last month.

For the latest in unusual bird sightings in Georgia, the GOS "hotline" site is updated once a week or more often, at www.gos.org/rbas.html#ga.