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June 29, 2009

<b><FONT COLOR=RED> NEW! </b></FONT COLOR>Georgia Power working to designate bird area on Sinclair, Oconee

ATLANTA — Georgia Power has taken the first step to get the Rock Hawk Effigy and Trails, located near Wallace Dam on Lake Oconee, designated as an “Important Bird Area.”



Representatives from Georgia Power, the Audubon Society, Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Historic Piedmont Scenic Byway Corp. met recently to discuss what it will take to get the historic land the unique designation.



According to the Audubon Society, an Important Bird Area is a site that provides essential habitat to one or more species of Georgia’s breeding and non-breeding birds. It is generally a discrete site that supports one or more high-priority species, large concentrations of birds, exceptional habitat, and/or has substantial research value.



“This will take a significant amount of work during the next year,” said Mark Gordy, senior land management specialist for Georgia Power. “It would be a significant designation, and a milestone bird watchers would be proud of.”



Georgia Power has taken on the role of caretaker of 1,000 acres of land that encompasses the Rock Hawk effigy mound and hiking trails that surround it in Putnam Co. The Rock Hawk effigy mound is a historic Native American monument estimated to be more than 2,000 years old.



“The designation will bring more publicity to the site and it will allow wildlife management to work with birders to learn best practices in maintaining habitat that is good for certain bird species,” said Tom Schneider with Georgia DNR.



Gordy said Rock Hawk attracts some unique birds due to its location within the Oconee Wildlife Management Area and neighboring Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair.



In order to start the process, Georgia Power and DNR will need to count birds in the area, focusing on two lesser known birds, the Bachman’s sparrow and Swainson’s warbler.



The Bachman’s sparrow is the only sparrow that is endemic to the United States. Medium in size, the Bachman’s sparrow was once called the pine woods sparrow for its preference for pine woods habitat. According to eBird.org, an online site for general information about birds, the Swainson’s warbler is one of the most secretive and least observed of all North American birds. It is a skulking bird of the southern canebrakes and rhododendron thickets.



To find the birds, Georgia Power is hoping to enlist the help of volunteer birdwatchers. Anyone interested should contact the company’s Oconee/Sinclair field office at (706) 485-8704.



Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity. The company is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility, serving customers in 57,000 of the state’s 59,000 square miles. Georgia Power’s rates are below the national average and its 2.3 million customers are in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties.

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