UC-Santa Cruz - my visit to the biology department

A few steps away from physics I wandered into the biology building and happened upon this:

It looked like something my daughter my enjoy so I kept going.

Then it looked like something we both would enjoy so I decided to take a few photos for her.

The room was crammed with interesting displays.

Birds were a major feature of this wonderful room.

I wandered around looking and clicking.

She was hidden by the table of birds but there was actually a young woman sitting at that iMac in the background. She graduated in June but was staying on to work in the collection through the summer. She was so welcoming and encouraged me to look and visit as long as I liked.

Of course I started talking to her and asking questions and telling stories and she ended up taking me into the private collection room where there were huge cabinets with hundreds of drawers with preserved birds of every kind imaginable. She pulled them out one by one, let me hold them, told me wonderful facts about them, and spent about 2 hours with me. It was absolutely mesmerizing and so very kind of her. She shared her experience as a woman undergrad on campus and we talked about field trips and research, animal encounters on campus, and the multidisciplinary approach UCSC takes. 

She was a wonderful tribute to her school. I was very impressed.

I finally thanked her for her very generous time and went outside where I immediately encountered this: