These pictures were taken at around midnight in the Wetland Biogeochemistry lab at LSU. I had been there doing mercury extractions since about 4:00 p.m. (so about 8 hours after a full day of classes) and Wes needed pictures of my department for the year book so he made me his victim!  

These two pictures are of Stevie, a resident barred owl (Strix varia) at the Raptor and Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit at LSU, and myself.  I volunteered there for most of a semester and Stevie was the bird I was assigned to.  Stevie is a resident because a collision with an automobile left him blind and unreleasable into the wild.  I'm holding Stevie by his legs because he wasn't used to being handled and wouldn't perch on my glove (which is why I was working with him in the first place).

This section of pictures is from a field trip to the pine flatwoods ecosystem in southern Louisiana just north of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish.  The flatwoods pictured here are dominated by pond cypress (Taxodium distichum) and longleaf pine (Pinus palustris).  Historically these were fire-dominated ecosystems, however years of fire suppression has resulted in a dense understory of species not characteristic of the ecosystem.  The Nature Conservancy owns many acres of pine flatwoods in Louisiana and is restoring them with prescibed burns as can be seen in many of the photos.