Benjamin Van Doren is a sophomore at Cornell University, studying biology, and he spent time this summer helping to record Kirtland’s Warblers for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library. When he was a senior in high school, his research project on morning flight in birds won him fifth place (and $30,000 and a visit with President Obama) in the national Intel Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C. He writes, “Many songbirds that migrate at night also use the early morning hours to move in large numbers, but, interestingly, they often head in directions that bring them away from their ultimate destinations. These ‛morning flights’ occur regularly and can be quite impressive in areas where topography concentrates migrants. However, much remains to be learned about this fascinating phenomenon. I will discuss my research project that focused on better understanding morning flight using a team of observers, Doppler weather radar, nocturnal flight calls, and winds aloft.”
