Milt Bevington - An Elegant Man of Purpose
By Pierre Howard
The last time that I saw Milt Bevington and his wonderful wife Paula was in October 2009 at Greenlaw’s Environmental Heroes celebration. Our own John Sibley was receiving a well-deserved lifetime achievement award, and I wanted to be on hand. Milt always carried himself with an easy grace and put you immediately at ease with a big smile. He was one of those rare people who in his self-effacing way conveyed an aura of excellence. And indeed, he conducted all of his affairs with his family, in his business and in his community with excellence.
Milt left an indelible mark on the Georgia Conservancy through his long service to us, including his chairmanship of the Board of Trustees from 1989 until 1992, and his even longer service on our Advisory Board. He brought to his service the perspective of a successful businessman who founded Servidyne Systems, an energy engineering company that worked on five continents. The company received an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy for its role in making the most office buildings in the U.S. achieve Energy Star status for energy efficiency.
His first rate mind, honed at Harvard and MIT, was always searching for the answers to hard questions. Milt was able to figure out what the questions were and help move us toward the answers. He understood early on the important connection between the preservation of the natural world and the maintenance of a healthy economy.
And yet he was not one of those who meant – by recognizing the connection – that the protection of the natural world should be secondary to the promotion of economic interests. He understood that without properly functioning natural systems, economic progress will eventually wane. The two must go hand in hand. In this respect, he was a visionary, and our current strategic plan reflects his thinking.
When the world loses a person like Milt Bevington, it suffers an irreplaceable loss. Yet, we live in the hope that others of equal ability, courage and belief will step forward to fill the void. He would tell us with a smile to keep the faith, and so we will. And in doing so, we will remember our friend, Milt. An elegant man of purpose.
President
Georgia Conservancy
Past messages:
120 Miles off Ossabaw Island, May 28, 2010
By Pierre Howard
Our boat left Charleston harbor in the dark at 4:30 AM headed into Georgia waters. After about three hours of steady riding on a calm sea, we crossed into Georgia at about 120 miles off Ossabaw Island.
The trip with five friends was made to photograph rare seabirds that congregate in the Gulf Stream in summer- birds that nest on islands far to the south and then spend the rest of the year at sea, feeding and resting on the water. Leaving from Charleston is the best way to get to Georgia's deep water fast. The Georgia Bight, the inward curvature of the Georgia coastline, makes getting to the best birding spots beyond the reach of most boats because of fuel limitations.
To attract birds, we put out a "slick" of menhaden oil and shark's liver behind the boat, as we glided slowly into the brightness of the May dawn. The water of the Gulf Stream was a deep sapphire blue, so different from the brownish water inshore.
On the horizon, a Cory's Shearwater sailed just above the gentle waves. Our largest shearwater, Cory's is brown on the back and white underneath with long wings. Soon, the captain shouted that there were birds on the water ahead. It was two Manx Shearwaters, small shearwaters that are black above and gleaming white below, with white undertail coverts and a small white crescent behind the cheek.
Once thought to be rare in Georgia waters, more Manx are being seen with an increase in pelagic trips. (The term "pelagic trips" refers to birding from a boat in the open ocean, often far from land.) The Manx pair finally took flight and relocated a short distance way.
Now, Wilson's Storm-Petrels were dancing in the wake over the menhaden oil, looking for prey to pick from the surface. A Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, larger and longer-winged than the Wilson's came gliding in, as did a Leach's Storm-Petrel. As the sun got hotter, we began to see Black-capped Petrels, a threatened seabird that nests on in the mountains of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Some experienced Georgia birders have seen only a few Black-caps in their life. This day we would see over fifty of them, sometimes in flocks.
From the horizon, a large dark bird was streaking toward the boat. As it continued to approach and come in close, we could see that it was a light phase Pomarine Jaeger. This fearsome bird lives at sea by stealing fish from other birds, while on its arctic nesting grounds, it survives on a diet of brown lemmings. We fed it a Spanish sardine or two, which it grabbed and swallowed whole.
Some fluffy white clouds formed a phalanx across on the southern horizon, as if resting on the water far away. It was a day of incredible beauty at sea. Pristine was a word that came to mind. Loggerhead turtles, dolphins, flying fish, Sargasso grass- all living in pure, clean water.
The thought of BP's oil ruining a place of such vibrant beauty and fragile life is unthinkable. I imagined how the people on the Gulf Coast must feel. Their frustration and anger give way to a determination to act to save a way of life.
The BP oil would threaten the life of everything I saw that day. We must have the courage to fight, and fight we will.
BP: keep your mitts off Georgia.
President
Georgia Conservancy
Letter from the Georgia Conservancy to Lisa Perez Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
The Georgia Conservancy applauds the Environmental Protection Agency for setting a tough new policy that will add some measure of protection to rivers and streams and the communities that depend on them from the destruction caused by mountaintop removal coal mining.
The new policy represents the most significant administrative action ever taken to address mountaintop removal coal mining and reaffirms the administration's commitment to science and environmental justice for the communities and natural areas of Appalachia. We encourage you to vigorously enforce this policy so that coal companies cannot continue dumping mining waste into streams.
Severely limiting the most devastating form of coal mining is a major step towards protecting Appalachia's natural heritage!
Thank you for setting this new policy and recognizing the negative impacts mountaintop removal has had on waterways and communities.
President
Georgia Conservancy
Signs of Spring at Sweetwater Creek State Park
It's always good to get back to your roots.
On April 1, I slipped out to one of my favorite state parks, Sweetwater Creek, located just west of Atlanta in Douglas County near I-20 West. The redbuds are just coming out, a bit late since all spring plants seem to be about two weeks late statewide this year.
The woods still look bare, but along Sweetwater Creek on a high rocky bank, I found a nice patch of Trailing-arbutus, Epigaea repens, blooming. My friend Joel McNeal at UGA, one of our foremost plant experts, tells me that Trailing-arbutus is "spotty" in the Piedmont but is found more commonly on the Cumberland Plateau of northwest Georgia and in Tallulah Gorge/ Panther Creek area of Rabun County.
But then, Sweetwater Creek SP is the place of the unexpected.
Until a flood scoured its banks a few years back, the creek was lined with Mountain Laurel. Some of it survived and is making a comeback. The park gives you the feeling sometime that you are not in the Piedmont anymore, but in the Mountains.
On February 21, 1996, a pair of Harlequin Ducks were found on a flat rock in the middle of Sweetwater Creek near the ruins of the old mill. Harlequins are extremely rare in Georgia, but they nest on fast flowing streams in places like Glacier National Park in Montana. Maybe they felt at home on Sweetwater Creek.
 I also found a Spring Azure, Celastrina ladon, along the path yesterday. Butterflies have just appeared in the Atlanta area during the last week, and migrant birds have started to trickle in from Central and South America and Mexico. The Yellow-rumped Warblers, one of the few warbler species that stays in Georgia for the winter, are still feeding in the treetops along Sweetwater Creek. During April, the males will become very colorful and begin singing prior to their departure for the nesting grounds in boreal Canada.
My visit reminded me that had it not been for the efforts of the Georgia Conservancy, there might not be a Sweetwater Creek State Park. It was the Georgia Conservancy that convinced Governor Lester Maddox to purchase the land to be protected as a state park. He visited the property one Sunday afternoon with our president, Robert (Bob) Hanie, and was so taken by the old Confederate munitions factory ruins that he decided to protect the property (Dr. Bob Platt and Dr. Charlie Wharton were also on the trip).
In the years since, additions have been made to the park. During my time in office, I learned that a housing development was planned on the eastern side of Sweetwater Creek SP. Because I had learned to love the park from my birding trips, I immediately called DNR Commissioner Lonice Barrett and asked him to see what he could do to buy the 100 acres from the developer. A deal was made, and now the land is part of the park. Later, The Nature Conservancy was able to protect an important area at the confluence of Sweetwater Creek and the Chattahoochee River on the south side of the park.
Spring is a great time to go to Sweetwater- but so if summer, fall and winter. It is a state treasure.
President
Georgia Conservancy
Marbled Murrelet keeps protected status
The Marbled Murrelet will remain a threatened species and thus continue to be protected by the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in January. The decision was based on continued declines in California, Oregon, and Washington of up to 34 percent from 2001-2008. The decision provides critical protection for the old growth Pacific Coast forests where the species nests.
The announcement came in response to a petition filed by the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry lobbying group, which sought to remove the western states' population of murrelets from the list of federally protected species. Had legal protection been removed, Humboldt Redwood Company could have more freely cut their ancient redwood forests in Humboldt County, one of the three remaining nesting areas for the species in California. The petition had received a warm reception by the Bush Administration, but the claims of the petition collapsed in the face of the data showing steep declines in the species in recent years.
The Marbled Murrelet is a small seabird that spends most of its life feeding on the open waters of the Pacific Ocean, but that flies inland to nest in ancient old growth forests along the Pacific Coast. They prefer old growth redwood forest, which has been devastated by logging. In the remaining preserved redwood stands, they nest on the broad, mossy upper branches.
I have seen them just after dawn at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, located between Arcata and Crescent City, California (accessed by U.S. Highway 101). The predawn silence was suddenly shattered by their loud calls as they rocketed through the giant redwoods like small footballs with wings.
Ornithologists were baffled about where the species nested until the 1970's, when they discovered a nest several miles from the coast in an old growth redwood forest. Marbled Murrelets can sometimes be seen along the California coast feeding in pairs, especially on pelagic trips out of Ft. Bragg or Bodega Bay north of San Francisco, or on pelagic trips along the Central Coast out of Monterey or Santa Cruz.
Save-the-Redwoods, a highly respected redwood conservation organization based in San Francisco, has been working for 100 years to preserve the remaining redwood forests that stretch from the Big Sur Coast south of Carmel to the southern Oregon coast. The most important remaining redwood forests are located in extreme northern California. Some of the successful preservation efforts of the past have resulted in the protection of Redwoods National Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, and Muir Woods National Monument.
If the Marbled Murrelet is to survive for the next one hundred years, we must work diligently to preserve and restore the redwood forests of the Pacific Coast.
President
Georgia Conservancy
Tribute to James Holland, Altamaha Riverkeeper on his retirement
When a great warrior leaves the arena, there is a lingering sense of sadness and emptiness with his departure. And so it is with the retirement of my friend James Holland, the Altamaha Riverkeeper. My mind goes back to our first encounter in 1999. There was a coastal meeting of the Board of Natural Resources on which I served, and James was on the agenda to discuss coastal water quality. He came into the room carrying a bucket full of blue crabs. When he rose to address the board, he stood ramrod straight, speaking with great force and passion about the degradation of water quality on the coast. He reached in the bucket and retrieved a live crab that had a large lesion on its shell. He told us that he was a crabber and that his livelihood had been destroyed because the State of Georgia was not taking care of the Altamaha River, which feeds the coastal marshes, the nursery for crabs. He bluntly told us that we were not doing our job, and he was dead right. I was so impressed by his forthrightness and courage that I knew that I had to meet him. Fortunately, James decided to devote his life to making things better for our coastal marshes, swamps and wetlands by becoming the Altamaha Riverkeeper, and I have had the great pleasure of getting to know him.
When I think of James, the image that comes to mind is a photograph that was taken recently of him standing in front of a giant cypress tree in an Altamaha Swamp. He mirrors the strength and steadfastness of the tree itself and shows by his demeanor that he cannot be moved once he plants his feet. I have been amazed by the guts that James has shown in doing his job. He fears no one but respects everyone. James knows that too often those charged with the protection of the environment are unduly influenced by power and privilege. But James understands that someone has to call their hand and act if the Altamaha River, the Ocmulgee River and the Oconee River and the coastal marshes are to survive. He does not flatter wealth or cringe before power, believing as did Teddy Roosevelt that the natural world "cannot speak for itself, so we will."
For so long, we have depended on James. We knew that if anyone tried to mess with the Altamaha River, he do all in his power to stop them. Through the years, he has brought them in one by one, sometimes by agreement, sometimes by court decree and sometimes by the scuff of the neck, tracking them by plane, by boat, by automobile and on foot. But he has kept the faith. Now, as James enters a new and rewarding phase of his life, gliding along the Altamaha and through his beloved swamps in his boat, camera in hand, we must resolve to continue his work.
Our greatest tribute to our dear friend is to be, as he has been, the last sentinel at the gate when attacks come against the Altamaha, as surely they will. But because of James, we will be ready.
President
Georgia Conservancy
Tundra Swan sighting in Rome, GA
Photo and text by Pierre Howard
Winter is the best time to see rare and uncommon birds in Georgia. In summer, most birds are on their breeding grounds, but in winter they sometimes show up in unusual places because of weather events and vagrancy. One beautiful species that visits Georgia in small numbers in winter is the Tundra Swan, like the one that showed up on a small pond in Rome, Georgia, home of our Membership Director Bryan Schroeder.
I recently met Marion Dobbs, one of Georgia's excellent field birders and dragonfly experts, to photograph this adult Tundra Swan. The species nests on the arctic tundra in Alaska and Canada, and winters along the Pacific Coast and the Atlantic Coast, mostly from the Chesapeake Bay south to coastal North Carolina.
In Georgia, we normally see only one or two individuals per winter. We often get first winter birds that are not as snow white as the adults and don't show any yellow in front of the eye (the lores).
The United States has three swan species: Tundra Swan (formerly called Whistling Swan), Trumpeter Swan, and Mute Swan. The Tundra Swan appears to be holding its own, mostly because it nests in rather remote areas of the arctic. Oil drilling could compromise its habitat. It is also still hunted.
The Trumpeter Swan was almost wiped out by hunting but it is now protected in the United States as an Endangered Species, and the population is making a comeback. One good place to see Trumpeter Swans is Yellowstone National Park. Georgia has no record of Trumpeter Swan, although it was included in John LeConte's 1849 list of Georgia Birds. The Trumpeter Swan is considerably bigger than Tundra Swan, and its structure of the bill is different. Trumpeter Swan never has yellow on its bill, in the lores in front of the eye.
The Mute Swan is familiar to anyone who has visited England where they frequent the rivers. They are also domesticated in the United States and can sometimes be seen on golf course ponds, where they are placed to chase off Canada Geese. In the northern mid-west and mid-Atlantic states, Mute Swan has become established as a breeder and is countable on American Birding Association bird lists. Georgia has some reports of Mute Swans in rural areas (as last year in Murray County), but so far, the Georgia Records Committee of the Georgia Ornithological Society, of which I am a member, has not accepted any Mute Swan sightings as "wild" birds and therefore countable.
If you see a swan in Georgia, try to get a photo and send it to the Georgia Conservancy!
President
Georgia Conservancy
First winter female Virginia's Warbler
Photo and text by Pierre Howard
John and Kate Swirderski of Valdosta had been enjoying a winter hummingbird at their home in north Valdosta - a Ruby-throated. But imagine their surprise when they saw a Virginia's Warbler on the feeder just a couple of feet from their window. Since their discovery, hordes of visitors have seen the rare warbler, which is still visiting the feeder regularly. It sips the nectar and also feasts on the watermelon slices offered by its hosts.
The Virginia's Warbler is a small stimulus program for Lowndes County since the visiting birders are buying gasoline and lunch locally!
The Valdosta bird is only the second Virginia's Warbler recorded in Georgia. I found the first one on September 17, 1997 at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Cobb County. I was birding with Shawn Reed when I saw the bird come in behind me and land in a nearby tree. Because I had just been in Arizona, where the bird is a regular nesting species, I was able to easily recognize it as a Virginia's Warbler. Fortunately, seven other birders saw it over the next three days.
The Valdosta warbler is a first winter female. Virginia's Warbler can be identified by its overall gray plumage, bold white eye-ring and the blush of yellow in the middle of the breast, as well as its rich yellow undertail coverts and yellow-green rump. Virginia's Warbler breeds on arid mountain slopes (elevation 4,000-9,000 feet) in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, the Sierra Nevada of California, southeastern Idaho and sparingly in central and southwest Wyoming. In the Trans-Pecos of Texas there are a couple of breeding colonies as well.
You have to wonder how such a small bird found its way to Valdosta from way out there. On the other hand, an Arctic Tern fitted with a tracking device was recorded flying 50,700 miles in one year! Birds are amazing.
Leave those hummingbird feeders up in the winter. You never know what will visit them!
President
Georgia Conservancy
Hummingbirds in winter? Yes!
Photo and text by Pierre Howard
On January 5th, I photographed this first winter Buff-bellied Hummingbird at the home of Richard Armstrong on St. Simons Island, Georgia. It is the second Buff-bellied Hummingbird recorded in Georgia. The species is native to the Rio Grande Valley in extreme south Texas, and it is rare for one to show up as far east as Georgia.
Some of you may not know  that keeping hummingbird feeders filled with fresh nectar could attract a rare western hummingbird such as this colorful hummer. Many also come to yards that have flowering plants or shrubs, such as camellias. Winter hummers may use the feeder as a primary source of sustenance, but they also survive the cold months on the nectar of native flowers and insects when the weather is warm enough.
Nectar for your feeder is simple to make - four parts water with one part sugar, heated so that the sugar fully dissolves. Do not use food coloring. Remember to bring the feeder inside at night to keep the nectar from freezing, and return it outside just after sunrise. Your hummer will be waiting to be fed!
We have recent winter records in Georgia of the following western species coming to our feeders:
- The Rufous Hummingbird is the most common of the winter hummingbirds that visit Georgia, and there are numerous records each winter from across the state. Rufous nests in the Pacific Northwest, western Montana and Canada.
- There have been roughly 20 records in Georgia of the Black-chinned Hummingbird since the first in 1990. This hummer can be very difficult to distinguish from the Ruby-throated Hummingbird unless captured. The Black-chinned Hummingbird nests from California east to Texas.
- There have been only two records in Georgia of the Broad-billed Hummingbird, in Macon and Americus. It nests in southern Arizona and Mexico.
- We have five records of the Broad-tailed Hummingbird in Georgia: Kennesaw, Acworth, Tifton, Dawsonville and Marietta. This hummer nests in Rocky Mountain and Great Basin states.
- The Calliope Hummingbird is our smallest hummingbird. There have been about 10-15 Georgia records, from Decatur, Lilburn, Fayetteville, Carrollton, Alpharetta, Augusta, Savannah, Athens and Eastman. Calliope nests in far western states as far east as western Wyoming.
- Georgia has eight to 10 records of Allen's Hummingbird, from Sandy Springs, Cartersville, Macon, Blakely, LaFayette, Ringgold, Columbus, Roswell and Watkinsville. Allen nests only in California and southeastern Oregon.
- There is only one record from Dublin, Georgia, of the Green-breasted Mango, which does not go by the "hummingbird" name. Several hundred birders from across the United States flocked to Dublin to see this rare bird, pouring money into the economy of Laurens County. The Green-breasted Mango traveled all the way from nesting grounds in Central America.
- Similarly, the Green Violet-ear from Central America showed up in Thomasville over the summer. This very rare visitor is more likely to show up in mid- to late summer.
- In Walnut Grove, Smyrna and Snellville, we have hosted Anna's Hummingbird that nests along the Pacific Coast and inland California.
- And finally, the Magnificent Hummingbird has been spotted in Winder and on St. Catherine's Island. The Magnificent Hummingbird nests in southeast Arizona and Mexico.
If you have a hummingbird in winter, call the Georgia Ornithological Society Rare Bird Hotline at 770-493-8862 to report it. Because of the confusing similarity of some of the species, especially sub-adult and female birds, most must be banded by federally licensed banders in order to assure the identification. Georgia has several excellent banders who are able to capture and identify the birds without any harm to the bird.
One note: Georgia has one nesting hummingbird, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Most arrive in Georgia in late March and leave by mid-October, although a very few spend the winter. Ruby-throats migrate to Mexico across the Gulf of Mexico and spend the winter in a warm climate. If you have a winter hummingbird in Georgia, it is more likely to be a rare western hummingbird than one of our Ruby-throats.
Any yard in Georgia can host a rare hummingbird. Be sure to put up a feeder!
President
Georgia Conservancy
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