Storms, Global Warming Not For the Birds

Thomas Sherry hacked his way with a machete through the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge on the Pearl River last summer, clearing trails of vines and vegetation downed by Hurricane Katrina.

Sherry, a professor of ecology and environmental biology, worked for days and days with graduate student David Brown nearly a year after the storm to get to forest study-sites that he'd set up pre-Katrina.

Sherry studies the ecology of migratory birds. He usually focuses much of his research in Jamaica, and he's particularly interested in the Swainson's warbler, a bird that breeds in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast and winters in the Caribbean.

Since the massive storm hit, Sherry has been looking into the impact the Katrina "experiment" had on birds.

As a scientist, he's not content with anecdotal information. "Unless you have good, hard data on how many birds there are before and after a storm, it's hard to make any kind of rigorous statement," he said.