Kennesaw: Natural History of a Southern Mountain

Kennesaw: Natural History of a Southern Mountain is the first, and likely will remain the only, book reviewed on this website with a cannon on the cover. The selection of this photograph for the book’s cover is apt, though, as it depicts the stereotypical view of Kennesaw – a low, tree-covered rise in the background behind a split-rail fence and a Civil War-era canon. This mountain (just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Kennesaw can justly be called a mountain, though in many parts of the country it would rank no higher than hill) is the centerpiece of the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, a National Park Service site preserving the location of a key battle during the Civil War’s Atlanta Campaign.

While plenty of books have been written on the history of Kennesaw Mountain, Graham gives us something different, because, as he writes, “Where some old battlefields will forever remain solely a memorial to the past, Kennesaw Mountain is that and so much more.” Georgia birders would heartily agree. It has long been recognized that this is one of, if not the, best place to watch birds during migration in Georgia, if not beyond.

Graham’s natural history of Kennesaw includes birds, of course, but first covers many other topics such as geology, vegetation, salamanders, snakes, insects, and interactions between all the above. Indeed, you have to wait until the tenth chapter to get to “Kennesaw Mountain’s most famous inhabitants”. As birds are my primary interest in natural history, I was a little impatient to get to the “good part”. But only at first. It didn’t take me long to realize that it was all the good part.

Even if you don’t have much of an interest in some of these topics, it would be hard not to learn a great deal and even more difficult to not enjoy it in the process. I have read some very straightforward and dry natural history books. Graham’s is anything but. Wonderfully informal, it is brimming with personality. He describes a rock outcrop displaying prominent mineral banding as “a finger painting made by a feral child or a madman”, and writes that with Kennesaw’s mesic soils “the soil develops a texture almost like that of freshly baked brownies and looks delicious enough to eat”. He describes salamander distribution with a Civil War simile. And he even includes some nice movie references: a pit viper’s sensory perception is compared to that of the Predator’s (from the Schwarzenegger movie); and conjectures that the parasitic larvae of wasps was the inspiration for the Alien life cycle.

Ok, but what about birds? Long before I became interested in National Park sites and found myself visiting battlefields whenever I could, I made many a trip to Kennesaw Mountain. In the spring and fall the mountain seems to call out to birders, just as it surely does to the birds that you would see up and down its slopes. And not just any birds, but warblers. On a good day, 20 or more can be seen or heard. But if there’s one bird the mountain is known for, it would be the Cerulean Warbler. This is one of the best places to see this bird, anywhere. Graham covers all of this in his book. And more.

Even if you’ve birded Kennesaw extensively, I dare say you will learn something new here. One example of something I learned is that there are resident, breeding populations in the tropics of some of “our” migrants, such as Red-eyed Vireo, Eastern Wood-pewee, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow Warbler, and Yellow-throated Warbler. I had known about Yellow Warblers, and recall seeing something about the vireos, but the rest were a complete surprise to me. However, the author does not provide any references for this (that I could find anyway), as I noted when I tried to find out more information.

But if there was one thing I had hoped would be covered here, it would be the reason that Kennesaw is so attractive to birds. I was not disappointed. The obvious things are mentioned, like the fact that Kennesaw is an oasis of natural habitat literally sticking out of a sea of suburban sprawl. But Graham goes further; harking back to the geology he covered earlier, he postulates that anomalous magnetic fields produced by the magnitite present in the mountain interferes with birds’ migratory sense, possibly disorienting them or even drawing them in to the mountain. Of course, this would need to be properly studied to determine if it is, indeed, the case. But the notion is an intriguing one.

The only negative thing I can say about this natural history is that the author does not define all the technical terms used, and since so many disciplines are covered you may find yourself reading an unfamiliar word, such as orogeny (mountain building). And I should warn birders that Graham has a “constructive critique” for them, enjoining them to “appreciate the ecology of birds, rather than think of them as so many feathered postage stamps for their collection.” I would like to think he’s preaching to the choir regarding this, but it’s not a bad reminder. It is far too easy to get caught up in the chase, or jump from one bird to whatever may be next, especially in such a wonderful birding hotspot like Kennesaw Mountain.

Recommendation

For anyone who’s ever walked the park road enjoying the birds, for the many who have gotten a life bird on the mountain, Kennesaw: Natural History of a Southern Mountain is a must-read. I would further widen that to encompass anyone interested in the natural history of the southeast, for this book is relevant even beyond the borders of this particular park site. It is the finest “natural history of [some place]” book that I have read.