Sarah Pollack was working on starting an Audubon Society at UNC last year when she heard about the avian biology class. The course is taught every other year, so the junior had to wait a few semesters. It was well worth it. “I really like birds, a lot,” she says. “I feel connected to the natural world around me and it’s a hobby that I can do anywhere.”
Waterfowl, seabirds, shorebirds, and terrestrial birds flock to the coastal plain due to the high density of national wildlife refuges found there — supporting a diverse combination rarely found together elsewhere in the state.
Hurlbert uses a walkie-talkie to point out a flock of birds while driving. The trip is an opportunity to not only identify birds, but to teach students about local ecology and conservation efforts — including the reliance of many species on protected areas and how humans play a role in their future.
Before Curtis McGehee took this class, a duck was a duck. His mindset has since changed. Another class, “Local Flora,” instilled in him a similar skillset with plant life. “Instead of just seeing a blanket of green, now I see all sorts of different plants. It’s the same with the birds,” he says.
The class traveled over 600 miles during their field trip. The first day’s stop at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge was followed by a trip to Lake Mattamuskeet, then down to Swanquarter for the three-hour ferry ride to Ocracoke Island. Another ferry landed them at Hattaeras Island, where they drove up the Outer Banks before cutting back to the mainland to see Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge — a 152,000-acre conservation area.
Throughout the semester, students learn to identify 150 birds by sight and sound, reinforced by weekly quizzes. During the Outer Banks trip alone, students successfully identified 79 species.
The Outer Banks is a 200-mile-long string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, separated from the mainland by the Pamlico Sound. Its location makes it vulnerable to hurricanes and erosion, altering the geography of the islands over the centuries. In 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall here with 100-mile-per-hour winds, seven-foot storm surges, and 14 inches of rain. Development and rising sea level due to climate change makes the islands even more defenseless to these environmental hazards.
The students make their way up the Cape Hattaras National Seashore on a morning hike, rounding the corner to discover hundreds of gulls gathered on the beach. They spot a female peregrine falcon just beyond the crowd, feeding on a fresh kill. She’s hard at work plucking the gull’s feathers before digging into the meat, but her breakfast is soon interrupted. A hiker with dogs spooks the birds, sending them flocking and creating the perfect opportunity for turkey vultures to swoop in and steal the meal.
“We get to witness predation events, mating behavior, courtship behavior, and foraging behavior,” Hurlbert says. “I think the trip brings all of those concepts to life in a much more exciting way than you can get from a textbook or just talking about it.”
“I just love the idea of helping these students notice what I notice when I’m outside,” Hurlbert says. “It really is a unique weekend. Most people have not been to the places we’re going, and you can’t see what we saw anywhere else in the state. I’m just trying to make sure they’re appreciating that as we’re going around.”
UNC senior Maddie Peloff wanted to cap off her undergraduate experience with something unique and fun. After she graduates this spring, Peloff plans on taking a break before returning to school in pursuit of a medical degree. “It’s a good last class to have at Carolina,” she says. “It’s different than anything I’ve ever taken before.”
Vaishnavi Siripurapu fondly recalls visiting the local public library with her mother to rent bird documentaries after her family immigrated to the United States when she was five years old. “It reminded my mom of the birds we had in India,” the UNC sophomore says. “We’d go home and watch them, and slowly we started learning some English through that. I remember she’d always say, ‘I just love the birds.’”