THOMASVILLE—Acclaimed author and naturalist Georgann Eubanks will visit Thomasville on Friday for a Covey Film Festival lecture and slide presentation on birds of the southeast.

Eubanks is the author of “THE FABULOUS ORDINARY: Discovering the Natural Wonders of the Wild South.” In her novel, she offers readers a tour of the seasonal joys of ecosystems in the Southeast, including Whigham’s Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve.

Volunteer coordinator Margaret Tyson explained that Eubanks visited the Preserve nearly three years ago and returned to interview its botanists and volunteers. As a writer and teacher, Tyson was excited to educate Eubanks on the preserve’s history but had no idea that Eubanks would one day share that history with a worldwide audience.

“It was a surprise to us, but we are so excited to have her now share that with everyone,” Tyson said.

Throughout her novel, Eubanks reveals the “ordinary destinations” and events she explores, which are scattered across seven states. The destinations include wonders such as a half-million purple martins roosting on an island in a South Carolina lake, the bloom of thirty acres of dimpled trout lilies in a remote Georgia forst, gnat larvae that glow like stars on the rock walls of an obscure Alabama canyon, and the overnight accumulation of elaborately patterned moths on the side of a North Carolina mountain cabin.

These stories are woven with personal observations and local flavor, according to Tyson.

“Georgann is a great storyteller,” she said. “She has a great storytelling way of sharing the information and also telling about the people she meets.”

Tyson was shocked when she found out she was in the story, claiming she was just a “volunteer,” but after reading the novel, she understood that her story was one of many highlighted by Eubanks.

“The Fabulous Ordinary” reveals how plants, mammals, amphibians, and insects are managing to persevere despite pressures from human invasion, habitat destruction, and climate change.

That perseverance is alongside the efforts of dedicated scientists, volunteers, and aspiring young naturalists who are working to reverse losses and preserve the fabulous ordinary that’s still alive in the fields, forests, rivers, and coastal estuaries of this essential and biodiverse region.

Eubanks will be discussing all this and more during her lecture on Friday night at the Covey Nest from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Eubanks and her team are hopeful that parents and children will attend so they can learn to appreciate and observe, while doing what they can to preserve the natural world.