White-Crowned Sparrow in the morning

After bouncing back from our broken wing adventures, we have returned to our original mission of visiting schools and teaching kids about birds and nature observation. Last night, we drove up to Fort Bragg and weathered quite the coastal rainstorm. But when we arrived at Three Rivers Charter School this morning, the welcomed sun brought an impressive dawn chorus filled with TONS of birds actively eating after the wet and windy night. We walked around the school before classes started and got to watch the large flocks of White-Crowned Sparrows, Golden-Crowned Sparrows, and Yellow-Rumped Warblers, feeding in the Wax-Myrtle shrubs.

Darrow teaches Ms. Morgan's eager kids about making good observations.

We spent the morning with Ms. Turbitt's 3rd & 4th graders, then the afternoon with Ms. Morgan's 1st & 2nd graders, and Mr. Coy's 5th & 6th graders. Each class got to see birds they had never seen before and make new observations about the many common birds on campus.

A group of students roves the premises of Three Rivers Charter
in search of the feathered.

We started each class with talking about the general observation of birds and students got to meet our traveling companions Coop, José, Robbie, and Cedar (To be formally introduced in another blog post). We learned how to use binoculars and set out on the school grounds to find birds. We found a great deal of birds including our highlight bird of the day--a Townsend's Warbler!!! Be sure to look that one up and see it for yourself!

What's that in the hedge?!

It was an incredible first school visit and we can't wait for what lay ahead this week.

As for tonight, we will be speaking to the Mendocino Audubon Club about our work!

Students from Mr. Coy's class attempting to identify a Townsend's Warbler.

Question of the Day from Mr. Coy's class:

"How fast do birds fly when they are migrating?"

We learned that the White-Crowned Sparrow has been known to fly 300 miles in a night when migrating South!

Find out for your favorite migratory bird and post below with your answer!

There are many ways a bird may injure its wing. A swift blow from a cat's claw, a smack into a car windshield, a poorly planned cast of a fisherman's net.

photo courtesy of Google images

When a bird breaks its wing it is often left behind by the flock. With flight as the flocks best means of finding food and major advantage over predation, they simply can't afford to rescue a fellow downed pilot. Besides, they don't have the best medical training.

Brown Pelican with a broken wing.
photo courtesy of Google images

Thankfully, when a human breaks its wing, support and help is never more than a friend away.

At the Beginning of this week, only 5 days into our birding and bicycling tour, Kevin fell over his handle bars and broke his right arm. Luckily, Darrow was right behind him and motor-vehicle help pulled up quickly. After a visit to the emergency room in Garberville and a few visits with orthopedic surgeons in the Bay Area, Kevin's arm is fixed and slowly healing.

Special thanks to all of those who have supported us through this difficult last week of the Bird School Project. We are eternally grateful to our families for their support, and our friends for being there when we need them most.

We are still very dedicated to visiting schools and taking classes outside to learn about birds. Thanks to Dr. Joshua Richards, from Webster Medical, Kevin's wing is repaired and ready to hold binoculars.

Kevin's new wing hardware

After a quick turn around we are back in action this week in Northern California. Though we can no longer travel via bicycle, we are stoked to continue visiting schools in the Bird Mobile (Darrow's van).

Be sure to check back in this week as we visit Northern California schools all week long. Updates on our workshops soon!