Long-distance travellers are stopping through North Carolina this week. Despite weighing as much as a triple-A battery, the Blackpoll Warbler annually migrates from the Carribean and South America to breeding grounds in Canada.
But get your binoculars out now, because the warblers will take a different route in the fall — travelling 1,800 miles over open ocean to return to warmer areas. Host Frank Stasio marvels at warblers, thrushes, grosbeaks and the many other fleeting delights of May with Kim Brand, Audubon North Carolina’s engagement director.
For thousands of young people across North Carolina, sports going on hiatus was no big deal. But the cancellation of the Science Olympiad competition was devastating. Rou Yu Tan and Dishita Agarwal spent the school year learning how to identify birds by sight and sound. Their efforts were rewarded with gold medals at the regional competition. But the eighth-grade team from The Academy at Lincoln never got the chance to win a medal for their efforts at the state or national competitions, both of which were in Raleigh this year. Tan joins Brand and Stasio in a celebration of birds and to show off some of her prowess at avian identification.
