Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll find out why some birders will train their binoculars on the 9/11 Tribute in Light. We’ll also get details on the loss of a $70 million federal grant for Head Start preschool programs in New York City.
The solemn ceremony this morning will be followed by another ritual tonight: Two beams of light will be switched on in Lower Manhattan.
Like the reading of names at the World Trade Center site in the morning, the lights in the evening will be a reminder of what was lost in the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. “Everyone who sees the two beams of light about the 9/11 Memorial joins our shared commitment to never forget,” said Beth Hillman, the president and chief executive of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
Dustin Partridge’s role tonight will be to see that birds are not lost in the lights.
He is the director of conservation and science for the NYC Bird Alliance, which changed its name from NYC Audubon last year, and will ask the production team running the lights to turn them off briefly if too many birds are drawn to the installation.
“Light is incredibly disorienting to birds,” he said, and the lights are powerful. The National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum says they can be seen from 60 miles away. They reach four miles into the sky from the roof of a garage where they have been assembled — 88 units, each containing a 7,000-watt bulb, all positioned to simulate the size and shape of the original twin towers.
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