Dawn breaks early and fast at this latitude (41 degrees, 26 minutes North) in May. First light comes before 4:30 AM, and the sun is up by 5:30.

The two hours and forty-five minutes of sunlit morning that precedes first classes is a magical time. The air is cool. Grass is wet. A teacher walks a dog.

All is serene, but not quiet. The calls of birds--establishing territorial boundaries, seeking mates--creates a riotous symphony. Bird activity is particularly intense at the Blackwater River, where a Wildlife Science class gathers at 6:30.

The class conducts a "line survey," a set of observation points at which they maintain four minutes of intensely active listening--identifying bird species by ear.

A clean, Class A river, the Blackwater provides Proctor a whole set of rich wildlife habitats: moving water, banks, vernal pools, wetlands, an extensive flood plain abutting aspen groves, and deeply wooded hillsides. We catalog everything: time, temperature, cloud cover....and bird calls. Students are learning to distinguish between percussive Downey Woodpeckers and their cousins, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and Flickers. We look, in vain, for Woodcocks "dancing" in the field.

Back on campus, students and teachers are beginning their westward migration to the dining room.

Classes get underway. In the physics lab, the static electricity generator provides some fun. If you stay in contact with it, you only suffer two shocks: coming into contact, and breaking away. Of course, if you're wearing thin sandals, sparks leap from your toes to the ground, so a chair becomes important!

Some species of bird have yet to be identified....