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!