Sat, Sep 3 2016 - Hike on new Peachtree Creek Trails with Audubon & GA Native Plant Society Friends (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Charlie Cottingham Participants: Wendell, Charlie Cottingham, Huiling, Jodi S, Adrienne, Suzanne D, Nancy Stone, Herm D

We had a wonderful time on this leisurely nature walk this morning with about fifty other friendly fans of flora and fauna!  The weather was perfect and it was a pleasure getting to meet and interact with key leaders and volunteers from the Atlanta Audubon Society, GA Native Plant Society, GA Botanical Society and Peachtree Creek South Fork Conservancy.  We're delighted that they consider the AOC to be a valuable partner in their joint mission of protecting and preserving woodlands and wetlands, building and maintaining parks and trail networks, and raising public awareness about endangered plants, animals and ecosystems.
  Our Audubon birding guides Vinod and Gus did an amazing job helping us observe (and/or identify the songs of) more than 25 different bird species including a variety of beautiful woodpeckers, ducks, geese, herons and raptors - plus cardinals, robins, phoebes, towhees and our "state bird", the brown thrasher.
  The event was also delightful for the many colorful wildflowers, native grasses & vines, mushrooms, butterflies and bumblebees that we encountered along the way.  My friend Charlie Seabrook, the well known AJC nature columnist, was with us and he "came to the rescue" in answering questions such as the fascinating phenomenon of certain wasps causing a swollen plant "gall" to form in certain wildflower stems with their young eventually hatching out of it.
  It was exciting to stand together at the very end of the "Confluence Trail" where the North and South Forks of Peachtree Creek meet and where virtually all of the rain runoff in NE Atlanta flows into the main creek that continues westward through Buckhead.  A statuesque great blue heron posed for us there on the steep vine-covered bank of Peachtree Creek about 50 yards west of the confluence. 
  Thanks to new AOC member Nancy Stone for choosing this as her first "Club-sponsored" event.  After the main walk I enjoyed having her, Huiling and 4 of the Auduboners join me for an additional 45-minute hike on the very nice nearby "Cheshire Farm Trail" that hugs the North Fork of Peachtree Creek beside I-85 between Lindbergh Dr. and Cheshire Bridge Rd. - Submitted by Charlie, Sat PM Sep 3, 2016