“Birding Essentials”
A one day workshop which will give you the foundations for a life of amazing engagement with birds and the natural world.
Lift your birding game!
Birding Essentials is a one day workshop which will help birders, bushwalkers and nature lovers improve their bird watching skills and engage with nature on a deeper level. Over decades of operating birding tours, courses and workshops I have found that many birders lack a number of key skills which detract from their confidence and experiences in the field. These include poor binocular skills and poor trail walking and field craft skills. They also struggle with bird identification and learning bird song or calls. If you’ve read this far you’re probably nodding in the affirmative. The Birding Essentials workshop is a one day intensive where I share the tips, tricks and know-how that will help you get past these hurdles and start getting a whole lot more out of your birding experiences. Participants also receive an ebook/workbook which contains several elements of the workshop and will assist with learning on the day. Workshops are capped at eight participants.
Next workshop: December 1, 2024
Binocular skills
As birders, if our binocular skills are lacking our experience of the birds in our surroundings will also be lacking. Birds move quickly. It is frequently the case that we have only a second or two to get our binoculars onto a bird and identify it or enjoy its beauty or behaviour before it’s gone. Sometimes this may be the only opportunity in our life to see that bird. I find that even many experienced birders are missing some of the skills which are required to ensure they get the bird every time.
In the Birding Essentials workshop we will explore the workings of binoculars, how to clean them and how to set them up. I will also share the five principles of binocular handling which I have learned over decades of birding which ensure that I never miss a bird. We will then repeatedly practice these methods until they become habits.
Trail and field craft
Finding birds means understanding their behaviour and relating this to how we use trails. Unfortunately, so many people lack the understanding about bird behaviour and the principles of effective trail walking and field craft. As a result they venture out into the bush and see much fewer birds than they should.
In the Birding Essentials workshop I share the methods which I use to ensure that I see more birds and remain more deeply engaged with my surroundings at all times. Once you take on these teachings, you’ll never walk trails in the same old fashion again . . . and your days in the field will be enriched by more bird sightings.
Observing and identifying birds
As soon as we tell someone we’re into bird watching they will ask us to identify a bird which they’ve seen on their fence or somewhere in their travels. Sadly, the description of the bird is so diffuse that it’s impossible to confidently identify the bird for them. The fault is not yours. Rather the fault lies in your friend’s inability to offer a meaningful description. If we cannot describe a bird, we cannot identify it. If you’re struggling to identify birds, you are probably suffering from a similar lack of unfamiliarity.
In the Birding Essentials workshop we will learn about avian topography and how to bring this into our field observations. We will devote plenty of time to identification drills which will train our eyes and our mind to become confident with our bird identification.
Learning bird song
Bird watching should be called ‘bird listening’. This is because so often we will hear a bird before we see it. Our ability to find difficult birds or know that more bird species are present than those which we might be seeing is almost entirely dependent upon our capacity to hear them and know their calls or song. Knowing bird calls and how to learn them is one of the key skills which all expert birders possess. There is no reason why you can’t have this skill too.
In the Birding Essentials workshop we will demystify the calls of birds and how we can learn them and we will come away from the day knowing at least six bird calls which you can add to the ones which you already know.
Next workshop: December 1, 2024
Course Fee: $180.00
Includes a 5 – 6 hour field trip and companion ebook. Maximum of eight participants per workshop.
Aussie Wild acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land which we visit, the Dharawal and Darug people. We pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging.