LOCA^OP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, June 5, 2020 3A
Ga. Department of Natural Resources
encourages public to help count birds
BY KELSEY P0D0
kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com
Attention all Hall County bird
watchers and avian fanatics. It’s your
time to hop out of the nest and soar.
The Georgia Department of Natu
ral Resources’ Wildlife Resources
Division is encouraging the public to
report bald eagle nests to help moni
tor the species’ population in the state.
On Wednesday, June 3, the agency
reported that Georgia’s bald eagle
nesting numbers remained strong.
However, the successful nest rate
dropped 30% lower than average in
counties north of Atlanta, including
Hall, Rabun, Dade, Bartow, Floyd and
others.
Bob Sargent, leader of the 2020
survey, said substantial rainfall from
January through March likely contrib
uted to the lower nest productivity in
North Georgia.
“Populations of many wildlife spe
cies exhibit fluctuations in repro
ductive success from year to year,
sometimes wildly so, and these fluc
tuations are often related to bad tim
ing of unusually cold or rainy spells,”
he said in a statement. “... The over
all productivity trend for bald eagles
nests in Georgia continues to look
healthy.”
Sargent spent time in January,
March and April counting eagle nest
territories via helicopter in three
regions of the state: six coastal coun
ties, a section of East Georgia and the
counties north of Atlanta. His report
also included results from seven nests
monitored by volunteers or DNR staff.
The 2020 survey estimated 126
young eagles fledged from 82 success
ful nests in Georgia. A successful nest
means that at least one juvenile bird
grew the necessary plumage to leave
the nest. This rate of 1.5 fledglings per
nest matched the long-term average.
Peter Gordon, director of educa
tion at Elachee Nature Science Center
and longtime birder, said if people are
looking for eagle nests around Hall, he
would recommend traveling north of
Don Carter State Park.
Jim Ozier, wildlife biologist with
Georgia Power, said large bodies of
water like Lake Lanier are prime
areas for eagle spotting.
He has a couple of tips, so people
don’t confuse eagle nests with osprey
nests. While osprey like to raise their
young out in the open on dead trees or
atop utility poles, he said eagles prefer
a more sheltered home like evergreen
trees. In North Georgia, he said they
typically settle on pine trees.
“I’ve never seen one in an exposed
structure,” Ozier said. “They’re
usually near a significant amount
of water, reservoir or major river.
There’s a balance of being next to the
water and high up.”
Although eagles and osprey are
both large birds of prey, Gordon said
the two have distinctive appearances.
Ospreys, which are smaller, have
white on their chests; whereas, bald
eagles only have white plumage on
their heads and tails.
“Osprey have incredibly long wings,
but when you see them compared to
an eagle, it’s a significant difference,”
Gordon said. “They’re strong, power
ful pumpers of their wings. I recom
mend getting a pair of binoculars.”
To report a nest, visit georgiawild-
life.com/bald-eagle, call 478- 994-1438
or email Sargent at bob.sargent@dnr.
ga.gov.
r-T
The Georgia Department of
Natural Resources’ Wildlife
Resources Division is encouraging
the public to report bald eagle
nests to aid its monitoring efforts.
Courtesy of Georgia Department
of Natural Resources
HATE
■ Continued from 1A
“I will always be open-minded to
read what versions of the bills come
forward,” Dunahoo said.
An attempt to
reach Dubnik for
comment Thurs
day, June 4, was
unsuccessful.
“At the end of the
day, what we want
is legislation that
creates much more
deterrence to the
things that we’re
seeing happening in
the U.S. right now,”
Hawkins said.
Sen. Butch Miller,
R-Gainesville, said
he feels such a bill
will require a great
deal of patience
and cooperation to
create legislation
that is both passable
and enforceable.
“The hate crimes
bill will be a deli
cate process, and
it’s not as simple as
either side would
have you believe.
There is no place Miller
for racism or injus
tice in our society or in our govern
ment,” he said.
Miller said there are potentially
other substitute bills that have been
drafted.
“There are many legislators on
both sides of the aisle that are very
passionate about the issue, and right
fully so. The scenes that we have
witnessed in the last few weeks are
troubling to say the least,” Miller
said.
Miller said he feels the manda
tory minimums take power from the
judge regarding justice for the victim
and rehabilitation for the offender.
“We want to make sure that we
don’t create a circumstance that
exacerbates problems that we
already have in terms of incarcera
tion of... non-violent juvenile offend
ers,” he said.
State investigator testifies shooter
used racist slur as Arbery lay dying
BY RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press
BRUNSWICK — A state investigator testi
fied Thursday that a white man was heard
saying a racist slur as he stood over Ahmaud
Arbery’s body, moments after fatally shooting
the black man with a pump-action shotgun.
The inflammatory revelation came amid a
week of angry nationwide protests over law
enforcement biases against black victims that
erupted after the death of George Floyd in
Minneapolis.
In a hearing to determine whether there
was enough evidence to proceed with a mur
der trial, the lead Georgia Bureau of Investiga
tion agent in the case testified that Travis and
Greg McMichael and a third man in another
pickup, William “Roddie” Bryan, used their
trucks to chase down and box in Arbery, who
repeatedly reversed directions and ran into a
ditch while trying to escape.
Travis McMichael then got out of his truck
and confronted Arbery, later telling police he
shot him in self-defense after Arbery refused
his order to get on the ground, GBI agent Rich
ard Dial said. He said a close examination of
the video of the shooting shows the first shot
was to Arbery’s chest, the second was to his
hand, and the third hit his chest again before
he collapsed in the road in a subdivision in the
port town of Brunswick.
“Mr. Bryan said that after the shooting
took place before police arrival, while Mr.
Arbery was on the ground, that he heard Tra
vis McMichael make the statement, ‘f - - - ing
n---er,’” Dial said.
Bryan gave investigators the information
roughly a week after the McMichaels’ arrest,
but there’s no indication he told Glynn County
investigators before that, Dial added.
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s fam
ily, told reporters outside the courthouse that
prosecutors had warned the family before the
hearing of the coming testimony about the
slur.
“It was still very difficult to hear in the
context of a prolonged chase, that after he
murdered Ahmaud Arbery and stood over
his body, he used that racial epithet,” Merritt
said. The lawyer said Thursday’s testimony
revealed that “racism was at the heart” of
G. McMichael T. McMichael Bryan
Arbery’s slaying.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones
called the release of new details in court
“very, very heartbreaking.”
“He was afraid,” Cooper-Jones said of her
slain son. “Life had placed him in a position
where I couldn’t protect him, and he wasn’t
able to protect himself.”
At the conclusion of the probable cause
hearing Thursday, Magistrate Court Judge
Wallace Harrell found that there was enough
evidence for the cases against all three defen
dants to proceed.
“Ahmaud Arbery was chased, hunted
down and ultimately executed at the hands of
these men,” prosecutor Jesse Evans told the
judge. “He was on a run on a public road in
a public subdivision. He was defenseless and
unarmed.”
Under questioning by Jason Sheffield, an
attorney for Travis McMichael, Dial said Tra
vis told police he raised his shotgun at Arbery
from roughly 90 feet away and told him to stop
and get on the ground.
That’s when Arbery ran around the passen
ger side of Travis’ truck, and the two men met
in front of it.
Dial said Travis told police Arbery “squared
up” like he was going to attack.
“There’s a statement that he might have
had his hand on his shirt,” Dial said. “Travis
McMichael said his adrenaline was pumping
and it all happened very quickly.”
He said Travis then fired the first shot into
Arbery’s chest.
Sheffield argued that the pursuit began with
a legitimate concern about past crimes in the
neighborhood that escalated right before the
shooting.
“Travis McMichael used self-defense when
he was attacked by Mr. Arbery,” Sheffield said.
“I don’t think it was self-defense by Mr.
McMichael,” Dial said. “I believe it was self-
defense by Mr. Arbery.”
The testimony presented Thursday raises
questions about the idea that the McMichaels
and Bryan were legitimately carrying out a
citizens’ arrest of a suspected burglar. It also
could factor into a federal investigation into
whether hate crime charges are warranted.
Dial testified that Greg McMichael told
police that “he didn’t know if Mr. Arbery had
stolen anything or not, but he had a gut feel
ing” that Arbery had committed prior break-
ins in the neighborhood.
The investigator testified that police body
camera footage showed a Confederate flag
sticker on a toolbox in Travis’ truck and that
investigators discovered at least two more
racial slurs in messages on his phone.
In response to questioning from Bryan’s
attorney Kevin Gough, Dial testified that he
believes Bryan joined the chase because he
saw a black man running down the street with
a truck following and drew conclusions based
on racial bias. There’s evidence of Bryan’s
“racist attitudes in his communications,”
Dial said, referring to comments found on his
cellphone.
The investigator added that several resi
dents of the subdivision where Arbery was
killed told investigators they had seen him
running in the neighborhood previously.
Dial said the three defendants are the only
known witnesses to the shooting and investi
gators have found no other video of Arbery’s
final moments other than what Bryan
recorded.
Arbery was killed Feb. 23 after Travis
McMichael, 34, and his father, Greg McMi
chael, 64, gave chase when they spotted the
25-year-old black man running in their neigh
borhood. Bryan said he saw them driving by
and joined the chase, Dial said. It wasn’t until
May 7 — two days after Bryan’s cellphone
video leaked online and stirred a national out
cry — that the defendants were charged.
The McMichaels both wore masks as they
sat side-by-side watching the hearing onscreen
at the Glynn County jail. The judge rejected
defense motions to have them brought to the
courtroom, citing emergency precautions
because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bryan
waived his presence at the hearing.
