Birding with Kevin Cook

Sponsored by
Fort Collins Audubon Society

Two Classes for Spring 2006

Fort Collins Audubon is pleased to present two more offerings of Kevin Cook's popular birding classes.

Birding for Beginners

When:  Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., May 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31, 2006
Where: In the conference room of JAX Outdoor, 1200 N. College in Fort Collins (map)
Cost:    $7 per session for FCAS members or $32 if all sessions paid for at once
            $8 per session for nonmembers or $38 if all sessions paid for at once (Join now!)

This class focuses on “how-to”: how to find birds, how to identify them once you do find them, and how to remember them once you do identify them. It is also skills-based, emphasizing how to develop good, productive skills and how to avoid developing bad, unproductive birding habits. Frequently encountered and easy-to-find local birds will be featured as instructional examples.

Two field trips will be scheduled to augment this class. The purpose of the field trips will be to apply the material learned in the classroom to real situations with real birds in the field.

Birding after the Beginning

When:  Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., May 4, 11, 18, 25, and June 1, 2006
Where: In the conference room of JAX Outdoor, 1200 N. College in Fort Collins (map)
Cost:    $7 per session for FCAS members or $32 if all sessions paid for at once
            $8 per session for nonmembers or $38 if all sessions paid for at once (Join now!)

This class focuses on refining birding skills so that you can find birds deliberately and consistently. Specific elements of this class will include assembling a personal birding library, using field guides more effectively, apportioning birding time more productively, developing observation skills, keeping meaningful notes, and most importantly how to enrich the pleasure derived from your birding time without feeling like it is becoming another work-demanding chore. Participants will be asked to compile a list of particularly desired species, and this list will be used to demonstrate the material – principles and skills – covered.

Two field trips will be scheduled to augment this class. The purpose of the field trips will be to apply the material learned in the classroom to real situations with real birds in the field.

To Register

Call Joel Hurmence at 481-2124 to register.

About Kevin J. Cook

Kevin J. Cook has worked as a writer-naturalist based in Fort Collins, Colorado, since 1980.  While earning a bachelor of arts degree in biology (1978) and a master of science degree in wildlife biology (1989), he served with the National Park Service and did consulting for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.  Since beginning his writing as a college student in 1975, he has published 6,000 newspaper and magazine articles, contributed to several books, and edited nearly 1,000 technical articles about wildlife for scientific publication.  Besides writing he conducts seminars, teaches classes, and leads tours, all based on wildlife or natural history themes.  Though birds are his specialty group, he studies all wildlife and uses his writing and teaching to help people enjoy the natural world more by coming to understand it better.

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