Ready to take your birding to the next level?

1.5 Hours per Class

Pay What You Can

Suggested Fee: $15 per workshop Free Preview: enter code HOT-FREE at check-out 50% Discount: $7.50 per workshop; enter code HOT-50 at checkout

For your convenience, you can sign up for single workshops at any time, or for the entire month at once on the first week of each month!

About

Register now to join Kristine Rivers with Birding for Fun for our Next Level Birding Virtual Workshops! Classes are held via Zoom on Thursdays at 7pm unless otherwise noted. Series is ongoing and participants may join us at any time; there is no specific start date.

These interactive workshops are designed for intermediate birders and those who have completed the Beginner Birding Series; all experience levels are welcome.

HOT ON THE TRAIL!

Each week we'll surprise you with virtual field trips to current birding hotspots, sharing our videos of species we've encountered there – but you’ll have to identify them to discover what we saw! In this fun workshop, you'll practice observation skills to decipher clues about appearance, habitat, behavior, season, and range. Bring your favorite field guide and/or app to help solve these real-life identification puzzles!

Participation Guidelines##

• In this Birding for Fun series, we share our personal videos of species we encounter while out birding for your enjoyment and education. We go birding at all times of the day, during all kinds of weather, throughout all seasons, in a wide variety of habitats, so we see a wonderful variety of species, plumages, and behaviors.

• Our videos are not professionally shot and edited; however, they do provide an accurate depiction of what it’s like in the field. Identification is often challenging, even for experienced birders – that’s what makes it fun! Light conditions are ever-changing, views may be at any distance and for any length of time, plumages within species not only vary but may be in any stage when you encounter them, and since we’re in Texas you never know what might make an appearance.

• As you might imagine, we spend many hours in the field, and many hours editing videos, in order to share our experience and knowledge with you. By attending from week to week, you’ll gain valuable insight into seasonal transitions, habitat changes in real-time, plumage variations, behavioral adaptations, and more – experience usually acquired only by spending hours in the field yourself. While we encourage knowledge sharing with each other, we do have specific information to impart and objectives to accomplish in each workshop; for this reason, it’s important to allow us to take the lead during discussions to ensure that the workshop flows smoothly.

• Videos presented are carefully curated to highlight interesting discoveries, feature species that are often tricky to identify, share habitat and hotspot information, and create a consistent throughline – not only within each workshop, but from week to week. We see so much in each trip that it would be impossible to share everything, even if we did manage to get videos of all species seen (spoiler alert – we don’t!)

• Our primary objective is to encourage careful observation, which is critical to identification. For that reason, we spend a lot of time with each video, describing what we’re seeing BEFORE tackling identification – not only field marks, but body shape and size, general family group (i.e., wader, raptor, sparrow, etc.), behavior, habitat, or anything else that might aid in identification. We ask a lot of open-ended questions to guide the discussion and get everyone thinking!

• Our secondary objective is to build confidence with identification, without the stress often experienced in the field. Workshops are conducted at a relaxed pace, in a fun and encouraging environment. Participants have varying levels of experience, and we want everyone to feel comfortable asking questions, learning to hone observation skills, and have a chance to describe what they’re seeing. If you’re able to ID a species immediately, that’s great! Sit back and listen, you’re sure to learn something. We always include identification tips and tricks, and interesting information about each species.

• THIS IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT: If you know what a species is right away, DON’T SHOUT IT OUT and spoil it for everyone else. We want everyone to have plenty of time to practice observation and navigating through finding the bird in their field guides or apps. This is good practice no matter how long you’ve been birding – sometimes you may discover your initial ID was incorrect!

• After conversation about each species, we’ll ask if anyone is still working on identification, or if everyone knows what it is. Please be respectful and give everyone a chance to respond. We will continue discussion if anyone is still working on it – at that time, you can offer helpful hints, but please don’t call out the ID.

• Finally, we’ll tell everyone to go ahead and shout it out – that’s your cue to jump in with your ID and see if you’re correct! We will confirm identification, and give everyone a chance to locate it in their field guides if they haven’t already done so. We often ask follow-up questions that lead to additional learning opportunities, and always provide info about each species and ID tips at that time.