Georgia
Birding is booming as Birds Georgia celebrates 100 years
Photograph by Ben
Rollins
On a busy December afternoon, Adam Betuel was trying to calculate whether he had time to see about a bird. Sure, he had work and kids, and sure, he’d have to drive at least two hours from Atlanta to Augusta. But a Georgia birder group chat had just alerted him to something unusual: A groove-billed ani had been spotted in the eastern part of the state—far outside Central America, where it’s usually found. It was tempting to see a member of the cuckoo family in his own state, but Betuel decided not to make the drive.
It wouldn’t be the last time he would weigh daily responsibilities against the urge to chase a bird. The executive director of Birds Georgia, Betuel has more than 2,600 species on his “life list,” a birder term for the record of all the species one has observed over a lifetime.
The thrill of the treasure hunt is part of what draws people to Birds Georgia, which has 2,500 members and turns 100 years old this spring. Since its founding as the Atlanta Bird Club in 1926, its members have not only honed field skills and added new species to their life lists, but they’ve also advocated on behalf of bird conservation and educated the public about why birds matter.
Birds serve ecological purposes, such as pollination and seed dispersal, says Betuel, who is also a trained ornithologist and ecologist. And, he says, “they inspire us culturally, they’re beautiful, and they’re more or less ever present, so [birding] is a great way to engage with wildlife.”
Photograph by Ben
Rollins
To celebrate the group’s centennial, Birds Georgia will host several public events. Its Centennial Bird Fest, a monthlong series of field trips, educational seminars, and family activities, begins April 10. This year, the organization also plans to launch construction of the Georgia Birding Trail, a long-planned network of more than 400 birding sites statewide.
The group’s charter members would likely be proud to see how far their organization has come. Fourteen people attended the first Atlanta Bird Club meeting in March 1926, and according to historical records kept by Birds Georgia, they had lofty goals: They would collect data on bird behavior and migrations, improve the bird friendliness of public parks, prevent cruelty to birds, and support birdhouse-building projects for scouts and school groups.
One of the group’s first acts of advocacy was to protest a mass killing of purple martins that had been ordered by the city. Such activism continued through the club’s early decades, including pushes for stronger protections against the hunting of migratory birds. The group also helped establish the brown thrasher as Georgia’s state bird, proclaimed by Governor Eugene Talmadge in 1935.
Over the decades, the organization expanded its mission to protect not just birds, but also the wild habitats and ecosystems that help them thrive. The shift reflected the wider conservation movement that began to take shape in the 1960s, led by pioneering voices such as Rachel Carson and Paul Ehrlich. When research showed that species decline among birds was a consequence of human-driven habitat loss, Birds Georgia ramped up its public outreach and launched its enduring Wildlife Sanctuary Program to educate community members on making their properties bird-friendly. This program remains a core part of Birds Georgia’s mission today, along with the Master Birder Program, which certifies graduates as experts in bird identification. Another is Project Safe Flight, an effort to reduce window strikes, which are a leading cause of death for songbirds in urban areas. (Virtually all bird groups are struggling in the modern world due to human development and climate change.)
In 1968, the Atlanta Bird Club joined the National Audubon Society, becoming Atlanta Audubon. But in 2021, as part of a wider national reckoning on American racism, many birders—including some in the Georgia group—began calling for their chapters to disassociate from the Audubon name because John James Audubon was an enslaver and well-known promoter of white supremacy.
“We learned that there are fellow bird conservationists and prospective bird lovers who feel unwelcome when we use the Audubon name,” Marc Goncher, then the vice chair of the board for the Georgia chapter, said in a public statement. In 2023, after six months of research and deliberation, the board voted to rename the organization Birds Georgia.
Some birders criticized the national wave of name changes, but many longtime members supported the shift, including Mary Kimberly, who has been involved with the organization since the 1990s. “I think the whole name change has been very beneficial,” Kimberly says. “We see a lot more younger faces now at meetings and events and a lot more people of color.”
Photograph by Ben
Rollins
Not only is membership diversifying; it’s growing. Birds Georgia’s numbers peaked in the 1990s, with about 4,100 members, but then began to steadily decline. That changed during the Covid-19 pandemic, when lockdowns led to a surge of national interest in birding, spurring new avian enthusiasts to join their local associations.
One of Birds Georgia’s younger members is Olivia Jones, a middle-school language arts teacher in her 20s from Druid Hills. She became interested in birding in 2024 after watching a barred owl pair raise chicks in her yard.
“Then my barred owl family left, but there was so much more out there,” Jones says. “It was like I truly opened my eyes and had seen birds for the first time.”
Jones equipped her yard with a hybrid bird feeder–camera and a bluebird nesting box and downloaded bird-identification apps on her phone. She kept a spreadsheet of her observations and started a life list. Then she joined Birds Georgia, began going on bird-watching walks, and eventually even earned her Master Birder certification.
These programs and events have provided resources to enhance her naturalist skills, and they also offer an opportunity to learn from others and make friends. “It’s such a great way to meet people,” Jones says. “Generally, generations have different pastimes that they get involved with. But birding feels like the great equalizer . . . It is a great opportunity to remind you that your age is not the only age, and people have walked this path before you to share their insights.”
This article appears in our April 2026 issue.
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The Georgia baseball team had long since poured out of the Foley Field home dugout and the water bottles that were thrown on the field in jubilation had been cleaned up.
The Bulldogs celebration that carried into center field after a 13-8 victory on Saturday night over LSU on May 9 had ended and players had doused coach Wes Johnson with blue sports drink.
Now, some 20 minutes later, it was postgame photo time for the freshly minted 2026 SEC regular season champions.
They gathered in front of the spot on the right field wall where the previous seven seasons of Georgia SEC championships were listed, the last in 2008. Above them on the video board was a graphic that recognized this year’s team as SEC champions.
“Watching the program grow in such a shot amount of time, it’s awesome,” said pitcher Paul Farley, who has been with the Bulldogs for all three seasons with Johnson and got the win in relief Saturday. “We’ve got four SEC games left and to be able to hang that up there the SEC champs already it’s amazing.”
Farley was speaking figuratively because the 2026 numbers weren’t on the outfield fence just yet.
Fifth-ranked Georgia (40-11, 20-6 SEC) still has a chance to put a College World Series trip up there in left field for the first time since 2008 and in a best case scenario add another national championship year in right field with the 1990 season.
“SEC champs is great, but obviously we want to do bigger and better things,” Farley said.
LSU, the team that won it all last season, was still around having a postgame talk on the artificial turf field long after the game ended.
Johnson was with LSU in 2023 as pitching coach when it won another College World Series.
“It’s massive,” Johnson said of this latest championship. “Anytime you can win this league, man, it’s so hard. Then win it outright. It’s something you want to check off on your list of things you’ve ever accomplished. It’s 10 weekends of just meat house grinding.”
Johnson said he didn’t know that the dominoes had fallen Saturday to set up Georgia being able to clinch except that he saw that Texas lost at Tennessee as the result flashed on the scoreboard.
Texas A&M also lost twice at Ole Miss to set up the clinch for Georgia.
“I’m calling pitches, I’m locked in,” Johnson said.
He said assistant coach Will Coggin told him when the game ended that ‘We’re champs.’”
Many of the players knew.
“We had a few inside operatives, I’d say, tell us,” Farley said.
Shortstop Kolby Branch said he didn’t know “until the water bottles started flying.”
Branch said another Georgia team loaded with transfers grew closer in the fall and built relationships that have turned into wins this season.
Johnson said winning the regular season title in his third season as coach in the age of the transfer portal and NIL “means a lot.”
Johnson mentioned Farley, Branch and Tre Phelps being at Georgia for all three of his seasons.
“Seeing where we were in the first fall, we forget this used to be dirt and grass,” Johnson said standing on on turf field. “And we didn’t have the cool building and we only had one batting cage, all the stuff we’ve been able to do since we’ve been here. The other side is just understanding true belief and understanding what guys can do.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. –Georgia Tech softball (30-27, 10-14 ACC) collected its second postseason conference honor as first baseman Addison Leschber was named to the 2026 ACC All-Tournament Team, as was announced by the conference following the 2026 ACC Softball Championship game on Saturday.
Leschber is Tech softball’s first All-Tournament honoree since Emma Kauf during the 2023 season. During the First Round of the ACC Championships, Leschber was nothing short of exceptional as she went 2-for-4 with one home run, one double, and five RBI. Leschber’s first-inning home run brought her to 13 home runs this season, the third most of any Yellow Jacket this season. In Tech’s fourth meeting of the season with Notre Dame, Leschber saw her 12th multi-RBI game and ninth multi-hit game of the season. The senior finished the season with 26 runs, 37 hits, seven doubles, 13 home runs, 42 RBI, and 83 total bases.
2026 ACC Softball Championship All-Tournament Team
Jessica Oakland, Duke
Addison Leschber, Georgia Tech
Bri Despines, Louisville
Madison Pickens, Louisville
Bree Carrico, Virginia Tech
Michelle Chatfield, Virginia Tech
Emma Mazzarone, Virginia Tech
Jasyoni Beachum, Florida State
Ashtyn Danley, Florida State
Jazzy Francik, Florida State (MVP)
Isa Torres, Florida State
UP NEXT
The Yellow Jackets will await their fate in the NCAA Tournament Selection show on Sunday, May 10, at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech softball team, follow us on Twitter (@GaTechSoftball), Facebook, Instagram (@GaTechsoftball) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
Kirby Smart hasn’t hid from how Georgia goes about doling out dollars to its roster.
He wants veterans to make more than newcomers.
“I don’t want you to have to take a discount,” Smart recently told Josh Pate. “OK, a discount might be a little less than year one or two. We have we have traditionally paid our players junior and senior year as much as anybody at those positions. We don’t want to start [earlier] because I want you to earn it and work your way up.”
Smart acknowledges that route might hurt Georgia in recruiting. The 2026 recruiting cycle seems to reflect that. It was the first time Georgia signed a recruiting class that finished outside the top five of the 247Sports Composite rankings since Smart’s first class back in 2016. The Bulldogs had just two players finish in the top 50 of the player rankings, the fewest ever for a Smart signing haul.
Coming out of spring practice, it seems like the Bulldogs did a good job of identifying players who could fit and play immediately. Craig Dandridge, Tyriq Green, Khamari Brooks and Zykie Helton all had strong springs. None were viewed as top 50 overall prospects.
As for the top players on Georgia’s 2026 roster, most of them are in either their third or fourth seasons. KJ Bolden, Ellis Robinson, Nate Frazier and Chris Cole all signed as members of the 2024 recruiting class. Gunner Stockton is in his fifth year at Georgia and second as a starter.
Georgia’s 2026 team will be an older team compared to the one the Bulldogs had last season. Consider that Georgia started the year with only 10 members of the 2022 class on the roster and 13 players from the 2023 recruiting class.
This year, that number is up to 29 when you combine the number of players from the 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes on the Georgia roster. Georgia’s 2026 team will have 34 players with at least three years of experience in Athens. Last season, that number was just 25.
Part of the reason Georgia’s roster is a better reflection of its spending in 2026 is because it did a much better job of retaining talent with its 2024 class than it did with the 2023 group.
Going into last season, 13 of the 26 members of the 2023 recruiting class were no longer a part of the roster.
With the 2024 group, Georgia still has 23 of the 29 players it signed from the 2024 high school recruiting ranks. Georgia also has transfers London Humphreys and Xzavier McLeod entering their third seasons in Athens.
The gap between the two classes is particularly stark at the top. Georgia has not had just one of the 10 top 100 players it signed in the 2024 class depart the program before their third season in Athens. With the 2023 group, six of the 12 top-100 signees had already left Athens.
For as much fretting as there might about the state of Georgia’s current recruiting, the 2024 class was ranked first in the country. That collection of players, which Georgia has been able to keep together, is set to enter their season in Athens.
Georgia paid big to keep players like Bolden, Robinson and Frazier from entering the transfer portal. There was a kernel of truth when Smart ribbed Miami coach Mario Cristobal about sitting too close to Robinson at an award ceremony.
Robinson figures to be one of the best players in the country this coming season. We’ve often seen top recruits — CJ Allen and Monroe Freeling are examples from the 2023 class — have their best seasons in year three, before heading off to the NFL.
That is why it’s so important to keep recruiting classes together and retain talent on an annual basis. Georgia has done a better job with the 2024 class compared to the 2023 class to this point. That’s a big reason why there aren’t as many questions and concerns about Georgia this offseason compared to last offseason, even if it has made Georgia a bit boring to talk about from a national perspective.
Texas, Miami and LSU all spent big money to bring in new talent. With Georgia, it paid top dollar to keep its roster together. No SEC team had fewer players transfer out than Georgia’s 12. That offsets some concern about the Bulldogs also making the fewest additions in the transfer portal.
“We had some new guys on our roster,” Smart told Pate. “We had 26 new freshmen. We had eight new portals. So like with all that going on, we had new people. But at least we knew they were ours. And going through spring practice to me was much more enjoyable because you didn’t have this big dark cloud brewing of was he going to be here?”
Georgia still built a very successful team in 2025, as the Bulldogs won the SEC and made it back to the College Football Playoff. But Georgia has bigger goals and Smart knows it.
“Apparently, all we can do is win the SEC championship right now, so that’s not good enough,” Smart told Finebaum.
The Bulldogs are hoping that a more veteran team will set them up for even more success than they had a season ago. And that veteran element was acquired by keeping its one-time recruits in Athens for seasons three and four.
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