An uptick in afternoon convection thunderstorms accompanies the summer months. At the same time, we typically start to dry down in April and May, months that are among the driest in the Red Hills. This annual dry down primes our fuels for fires as we enter the...
Rare Species
Firebird Project studying fire’s sweet spot for coastal rail habitat
The Black Rail is not the only secretive marsh species being studied by Tall Timbers as part of the NOAA Firebird Project. The cryptically colored Yellow Rail is the second smallest rail species in North America and has mastered the art of elusion. Similar to the...
Prescribed fire critical to habitat for migrating Henslow’s sparrows
In the low-lying areas among the longleaf pines, a small group of biologists search for one of America’s most secretive birds. As footfalls disturb damp grasses, a small sparrow emerges and flies a few yards away before dropping suddenly back into the grass to run....
Gopher Tortoise Disease Study
The Tall Timbers Land Management team conducted gopher tortoise disease research this summer.
The Multiple Benefits of Quail Management
By Jim Cox, originally published in the Summer 2022 edition of Quail Call. It’s not much of a stretch to suggest that the Quail Call and all the other great information that Tall Timbers provides on quail management, has strong links to another bird that is as plump...
Caterpillar Carpooling: Reintroducing the frosted elfin butterfly to Georgia
On a brisk April morning, biologists from four separate agencies gathered south of Tallahassee to initiate the first attempt to restore the frosted elfin butterfly to a place where it had disappeared many years earlier. The frosted elfin is a small, cryptic animal...
Saving Rare Plants
Saving the Rare Plants of the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem By Jeff Glitzenstein, PhD, originally published in the 2022 Tall Timbers eJournal. The recent book, Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction by Georgann Eubanks (2021),...
Searching for the Black Rail
Searching for North America’s Most Secretive Bird—The Black Rail The Eastern Black Rail, a subspecies of the Black Rail, is a white whale to many bird enthusiasts due to its elusive nature. Rarely seen in flight, it acts more like a mouse than a bird, shuffling...
Two Rare Liatris Species
Two Rare Liatris Species Named for Beadel Fellows Angus Gholson & Bob Godfrey Liatris, commonly called gay feather or blazing star, is an herbaceous perennial wildflower with composite flower heads, and is in the Aster family. Several liatris species can found in...