At this weekend’s Georgia Rivers Ogeechee River Adventure during our participant introductions Friday evening at the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center, everyone put forth their favorite bird. Ospreys, hummingbirds, bald eagles and pileated woodpeckers were among the picks. Later in the weekend, birds became one of the highlights of our journey down river.
Yellow-crowned night herons were among the most conspicuous, but there were also swallow-tailed kites, Mississippi kites, ospreys, prothonotary warblers, kingfishers, great egrets and more. Paddlers used the useful merlin app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify (by sound) dozens of birds. Indeed, we saw just a fraction of the birds that were actually flitting about the river corridor. Getting an up close look at their beauty proved illusive. Birds are skittish.
Today, back in Rome during a morning walk, I stumbled upon a rose-breasted grosbeak…dead on the sidewalk. It was sad to see. But, it provided the rare opportunity to inspect the bird’s striking beauty. It’s black-and-white chessboard wings; it’s brilliant red breast. It’s compact ivory beak. Even in death, it was stunning.
Part of the joy of riding rivers is stumbling upon beautiful creatures, and birds, by anyone’s rankings, rate as among the most beautiful creatures on the planet. Encountering one in its natural habitat is a thrill. If we are lucky to get close enough to see the intricate beauty of their plumage, well, that can be a transcendent experience. Occasionally, it happens. I got lucky with a pair of prothonotary warblers building a nest this weekend. They flitted to and from a tree cavity, bringing moss and other material, pausing after each deposit to curiously inspect me before continuing their work.
I am not a birder, but I understand why folks chase certain species across the globe just for the chance to see one in person. In the midst of a world with so much wrong, a bird can remind us of all that is right.
Other highlights from the weekend…
Carolyn Phillips Morris of Thomasville, who grew up in South Georgia and learned to swim in the Ohoopee River, provided what is bound to become a favorite colloquial simile of mine. Her parents operated the Glennville Sentinel newspaper when she was growing up. The printing press was in a dark windowless room near the rear of the paper’s offices. The operator of the press described the room as “darker than the smut walls of hell.” That’s a keeper.
Doris Boggs of Palm Harbor, Florida, joined us for another journey, noting in her “medical information” during registration “very arthritic knees.” Arthritic knees or not, you’d never guess that Doris is 86 years old. The take out and launch in the historic Savannah-Ogeechee Canal was challenging, but she met it head on. One word for Doris: impressive. She was not the only participant born in the decade of World War II. Ed Evangelidi of Deltona, Florida kept us on our toes, as always, with his never-ending puns, riddles and jokes. Ed’s capacity for wordplay is only outdone by his capacity for intrepid exploration of water. Here’s a few Ed-isms…
Whether or not the fish will take my line is open to de bait.
The mackerel was fishing for jokes but was hooked on a one liner.
After the fish was hooked once, it quit having anything to do with one liners.
Blooms. The Ogeechee River’s banks were aglow with blossoming swamp spider lilies, iris and native clematis. Unlike birds, we can inspect their beauty up close. That was a treat.
In honor of Ed (and birds and blooms), there’s this:
What did the ibis say to the iris? I-C-U!
Joe Cook
April 2026
A few more photos from the weekend…
John McCoy of Roopville slides past a stand of swamp spider lilies along the Ogeechee River.
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