Northern California Flight Map

First of all, thanks to all who have contributed to our online fundraiser at GoFundMe. In the first week we've raised over $1,200. We're hoping to meet our goal of $5,000 by the end of four weeks so if you're thinking about it, or know someone who might be interested in supporting us in our goal, please donate now! More to come on this...

Now, without further delay, the route!

This is our route for Northern California. After starting in Crescent City, we will be at our first school in Leggett, California (the second marker on the map) within five days of hard pedaling. We will then continue to Laytonville (next marker South) before cutting a sharp West turn to the coast for a few days. By the time we get to our next set of schools in Occidental, Santa Rosa, and Petaluma we will have seen lots of birds and have lots of stories to tell!

Currently, we are making plans with Bay Area schools and southward after that. If you are a teacher in the Bay Area, or know of any teachers in the Bay Area who would be interested in our project, please visit the contact page and get ahold of Darrow or Kevin! Get your school on the map! Woohoo!

A rainy day workshop with UCSC's Mini Slugs!

During the past week we had the opportunity to visit our former tromping grounds at UC Santa Cruz and teach our first workshop (!) about the birds of the campus. With a bit of wet weather engulfing Santa Cruz for the day, Kevin and forty 6-9 year old campers hunkered down in an "activities" room and talked about bill shapes and sizes.



A big thanks to Chris Lay, curator of the UCSC Museum of Natural History, for letting us use some bird specimens. We spent the morning talking about different birds in Santa Cruz and wondering, "What do they eat?"


True scientists, hard at work, examining a Rufous Hummingbird noggin and accompanying bill


After a discussion about the different types of bills and what they are used for, we built homemade bird feeders out of pine cones, sunflower seed butter, and bird seed.

For more on this art project, follow the link here.

Question of the day (from the campers): Do birds sing in the evening before the sun goes down, too?
Answer: What do you think? Get out there and listen!

We are thankful to have two more workshops scheduled with the campers at UCSC's Sammy Slug Summer Camp. Stay tuned for more updates as we prepare for our adventure this Fall!