The lake can occasionally be good for interesting waterfowl in the winter, although this is generally incredibly unreliable. The sparrow field by the future beltline trail on the east side of the park (labeled Piedmont Gardens (Future Phase) on maps) is good Fall-Spring and is pretty reliable for a lot of tricky species for Atlanta like Vesper Sparrow and Sedge Wren within the right seasons. Birding during migration can be exceptional and practically every portion of the park is worth birding during both the spring and the fall. As this is a city park, almost every location with few exceptions is accessible for everyone.

Piedmont Park was initially a forest. In 1834, Samuel and Sarah Walker, among the area’s pioneer settlers, purchased the land for $450. Walkers built a cabin on what is now the Active Oval, cleared the trees, and transformed it into farmland In 1857, their son Benjamin Walker purchased the farm from his father and settled into a new log cabin where the Piedmont Driving Club is located today.

Many expositions and fairs were held at Piedmont Park during the next seventeen years, most notably the Piedmont Exposition of 1887 and the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895. The Piedmont Exposition was regional. Its purpose was to promote the industrial and agricultural might of the region. The Cotton States and International Exposition was a World’s Fair. 

In 1909, the City elected to transform the decaying fairgrounds into a park and enlisted Olmsted Brothers, pre-eminent landscape architects of the time, (and sons of Frederick Law Olmsted), to develop a master plan for the park. Due to budget limitations, their plan for Piedmont Park was not fully implemented. Nevertheless, the Olmsted Brothers’ 1912 plan greatly influenced the development of Piedmont Park. In fact, the current master plan, adopted by the City of Atlanta and Piedmont Park Conservancy in 1995, honors the brothers’ original vision for the park.

In 1989, unwilling to accept the decline of their beloved park, a small group of concerned citizens and civic leaders joined together to form Piedmont Park Conservancy, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of Piedmont Park. In 1992, The Conservancy established a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Atlanta, making official the public–private partnership and mutual goals to rehabilitate and maintain Piedmont Park.