Welcome to Wings Over Georgia!
The purpose of "Wings Over Georgia " is to provide the Birding Community with...
1) A database of Places to Bird in the state of Georgia
2) A library of On-line Resources for Birding in Georgia and beyond
3) A Photo Gallery for birds, birding Trip Reports, bugs, and more
4) Guided Birding Trips for small groups in diverse habitats of Georgia
My name is Ken Blankenship (above, photo by Pierre Howard). I love birdwatching, nature, and just being outside. I have loved being outdoors in Georgia since I was a kid. My mom's family was big on hunting, fishing, and enjoying the woods so she got me hooked on bass fishing and camping at an early age. I was introduced to birding in 2003, and it is a wonderful activity that I have been passionate about from the start. Like many birders, I find that along with the enjoyment of learning about and finding birds, the hobby takes me to so many interesting places that I would have never thought to explore... from open farmland, to swamps and lakes, mountain tops, sandy beaches, the open ocean, and everything in between.
I came across the online ListServ GABO-L early in 2004, and it completely changed my life as a birdwatcher! Here was a huge resource at my fingertips... years of archived data on bird sightings, locations, and so much more. Birding is exciting, and it was great to find a whole community of people who shared the same experience. I started posting to the ListServ about everything, from Red-headed Woodpeckers on my back porch to my first visit to Kennesaw Mountain. Along with a field guide, I purchased Giff Beaton's Birding Georgia. Wow. So many places to go birdwatching, and so many new birds that we had never even heard of let alone seen in the wild... I must learn, explore, find, and see all of them! Along with trips to various parts of the state using Giff's book, I used GABO-L to learn how to "chase" rare birds wherever they might pop up. I would plan an itinerary, using a premier birding location from the book or a rare bird site as a center point, but always wanting to know, "Where else can I bird on the way there and back? How can I design an interesting, manageable route that will take me to other birding locations in that region?" So I would search GABO-L Archives for the name of the surrounding counties and get a couple results... then I'd try searching for the name of a nearby lake... then a WMA... and so on. Eventually, I could use my Georgia DeLorme Atlas and a few GABO-L posts to patch together an itinerary as a Microsoft Word file, save it, and print it to take on the road. Surely, there must be an easier way!
In 2005 I started playing with the idea of developing a bird-finding website for Georgia using my itineraries as a base and expanding on them. I mentioned my idea of an "off the beaten path" on-line birding guide to several experienced Georgia birders. Their opinion was that the project would be a very valuable resource for the Georgia Birding Community, but that it was a big can of worms to open. I agreed 100%, and soon registered the domain name "www.WingsOverGA.com" The project started slowly as I learned basic web design, which is still about as far as I got. I then compiled and re-wrote my intineraries of a couple years worth of birding. I started using my DeLorme Atlas and GABO-L Archive searches for the names of counties, WMA's, rivers, lakes, bird species, etc. to find birding locations that I could properly write up directions for. I even began to solicit user input and write-ups of local "patches" by the people who know them best. At first, I avoided the "premier" birding locations treated so well in Beaton's book and focused on newer areas, or quick but productive spots to scan a pond or drive through some farmland. But with time, I found that I could expand "WingsOverGA" so much more by including everything - from the very best sites, to quick roadside stops - with photos to compliment the birding descriptions and directions. The photos have now become a very important part of the Places to Bird database, ranging from aesthetically-pleasing landscape, nature, and bird photos to the view one would have approaching an easy-to-miss turn on a country road. Another essential element of "Wings Over Georgia" is that it is an organic, living document. As new birding locations come up, they can be incorporated... just as important, if a site experiences changes in access, habitat, or species occurence this can be quickly adjusted on the website. User input helps make this resource more useful over time, so please explore and email your comments and suggestions.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All photos and other content on this website are the exclusive property of Ken Blankenship (KB), unless otherwise credited. Unauthorized use and reproduction is strictly prohibited; you can usually obtain friendly permission to use images by sending me an email.
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YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!!!
If you have found a new place to bird in the state of Georgia, please take the time to email some simple information, and I will publish it to the website. In particular, rural counties in the Coastal Plain Region are under-represented; this area of great habitat diversity also hosts a great diversity of birds all year but is not reported from on a regular basis. If you live in and enjoy birding any locations in this region, please send an update to the online ListServ GABO-L and/or a quick note to me at the email address below - any data, no matter how "little" is much needed!
If you have an interesting area to add to the database, please include:
a. Name of site (make this up, if no formal name exists)
b. County where it is located
c. Directions from nearest highway or town AND/OR DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer grid coordinates
d. Species of birds likely to be found here, in what season, or tips on how to bird the area (as brief or detailed as you like)
Also, if you have a neat nature photograph - one that you think is beautiful, cute, or just weird - email them to me for the Photo Gallery. It is also great to add more useful birding links to the Birding Resources page, so please email!
CONTACT ME:kenhblankenship@comcast.net
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