Tall Timbers Research Station

This past weekend I went down to Tall Timbers Research Station to color band Loggerhead Shrikes to see if the bands will actually stay on the birds. Our worry is that these ferocious birds are ripping the bands off and spittin' them out. We hope that with continued surveillance at Tall Timbers, we can see if this suspicion is merely paranoia or not.

It was amazing to see these birds in the majestic Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, and knowing that this is the original shrike habitat adds a certain wildness to the whole experience. I think that wildness comes from the plethora of species diversity that surrounded me there, making it hard to focus only on shrikes. I wish I could spend a month there just running around looking for as many plants and wildlife as I could find and just observing. Superficially, that idea seems like a waste of time for me; a whole month I could spend doing school work, researching, or writing my thesis. But in the back of my mind, I know it's not.