Identification Course Coming to Napanee

IDENTIFICATION COURSE COMING TO NAPANEE
 September 27 & September 29

The last time I conducted a bird identification course in the Napanee area, it was at a private residence south of town. There were about 10 of us crowded in the kitchen area of the house, and we spent six weeks going through the intricacies of identifying some 300 species of birds that can be expected to appear in the Napanee area. I continue to bump into some of the participants now and again, and it has been so rewarding to see these former students taking their interest to the next level.

That was five years ago, and I had originally created the course a couple years earlier in response to a request from Loyalist College. Using a common sense approach to bird identity, I presented the course to a room full of enthusiastic birders at the high school in Picton, and decided that six weeks would be sufficient to get across the basics, but not so long as to become monotonous. The course worked so well, that it has changed little over the years and is pretty much the same format as I now use every winter at Quinte Conservation. The course there has become so popular that it fills up very quickly with over 20 new birders every winter, ready to get a handle on how to pin an identity on those mysterious bundles of feathers that flit past us every day.

The Bird Identification Course for 2007 is already tentatively filled, so I have agreed to present an additional course in Napanee next month, in an effort to address the growing interest in birding in the Napanee area. Offered by the Limestone School of Community Education and Loyalist College, the course will be very similar to the one I will be teaching in Belleville four months later. Registration for this special course can be made by calling Napanee Night School Coordinator Krista Flint at 613-354-0133.

Although the content of the successful bird identification course has not changed noticeably over its seven year history it has, however, changed in its manner of delivery. No longer do we wrestle with outdated slides and overheads. Today, we use computerized Power Point presentations in the course, and have also incorporated several excellent support videos by well known Canadian nature film makers John and Janet Foster.

Bird identification is not the difficult task many of us think. It does take many decades of learning to become truly proficient, but it is this acquisition of new knowledge as we go along that has made the pastime the popular hobby that it is today. Bird identification is based on the successful Roger Tory Peterson concept of employing the process of elimination – narrowing the possibilities down to as few candidates as we can, and finally, triumphantly identifying the bird in question. It is a case of knowing what to look for in those precious few moments we often have while a bird is in view, and making that knowledge work for you. Through a process I call the Six Ss, I show you just how to do that.

The course offers classroom identification exercises, and during the six weeks we will also talk about bird anatomy, and learn the names of the various body parts of a bird so we can become more familiar with the names, and comfortable with the terminology. We need this information in order to properly describe a bird that we have seen. We will also look at field guides, and see a demonstration of one of the more popular computer interactive software that add a whole new dimension to bird identity. We will talk about binoculars and spotting scopes, and give you an opportunity to check out low end models as well as high end models such as Swarovski.

If the course is anything like past courses I have conducted, we will have a lot of fun as we work our way to becoming more proficient in the skill of identifying birds in the Napanee area. We will explore bird song, but not to the point where your head will be swirling with songs you can’t remember, but we will learn how you can use a song to assist in a bird’s identity. There will be lots of complementary support material available on this course, and if you don’t have a field guide yet, I always have a few that you can borrow.

Time does not permit us to explore every family of birds in Ontario, but we will spend time with some of the favourites, like warblers, hawks and owls, sparrows, thrushes and blackbirds, and very quickly go over most of the other families. Did you know that Baltimore orioles were members of the blackbird family, and that a waterthrush is not a thrush but a warbler, and a meadowlark is not a lark but a blackbird? It’s going to be fun, and when you leave this course in six weeks, you will be able to amaze your friends with your new found knowledge about the birds in your backyard.

If you are interested in this course which begins October 16^th, and runs every Monday evening from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., for six weeks, be sure to give Krista a call today at 613-354-0133.