Birding With Mike Foster

When to enroll: Typically, announcements for a course are posted with advertisers two months in advance.  Early enrollment is more likely to secure you a place.  To give you time to prepare the first assignment, and to read other preliminary information, I like to start e-mailing handouts six weeks before the first class, so please try to sign up by that time.  I keep a waiting list, in case of cancellations, in order to make final adjustments to the roster during the week before the first class.

How to enroll: Send me a deposit of $15 to hold your place.  Or you can pay the whole tuition at once.  Write a check payable to Mike Foster, and mail it to me at: 12871 W. Jewell Circle, Lakewood, CO 80228.  Balance due on the first day of class (cash or check).

If you have to cancel more than a week before the first class, I will refund any payments you have made.  If you cancel within a week of the first class, I will return anything you have paid over the amount of the deposit, but I will keep the deposit unless I can find a substitute for you from the waiting list.

Location of Courses: Jefferson Unitarian Church, 14350 W. 32nd Avenue, Golden 80401, which is 9/10s of a mile west from 32nd Avenue & Youngfield (an exit of I-70 is there); or 3.5 miles east from 13th Street & Ford in Golden (13th Street becomes 32nd Avenue as you drive east).

After entering the church’s parking lot (on the south side of 32nd Avenue), bear left and drive around the east side of the church and park near the building behind it: that is the Mills Building, and we will be in Classroom M 1-2 or 3-4.

Content: We will practice identifying birds by observing key traits of appearance, behavior, and song.  We learn the traits in class, using a DVD program that projects images and vocalizations, then we look for those traits in the field.

Field trips are to local hotspots, each with different habitats, often in different life zones, such as Plains grasslands, Foothills, Montane, Sub-Alpine, and Alpine.

Logistics: Courses will be limited to eleven people, plus me, meaning that we can carpool to sites comfortably in three cars.  Plan to take a turn driving.  As before, we will have lunch in the field while we discuss the day’s results.  Trips will last approximately half a day.  The amount of hiking we do depends on the sites I select, and how many birds we find, but you can assume each trip will be between two and four miles, with an elevation gain of no more than 700 feet.

Field guide: Any recently published one is acceptable, but the recommended one continues to be Kenn Kaufman’s Field Guide to Birds of North America (2000 or 2005 edition).  We refer regularly to specific pages in Kaufman’s Guide.

Regarding binoculars: a quick tutorial on lenses.  There are two numbers that measure the ability of your binocular: for example, 7 x 35 means that it magnifies the image seven times (they are 7 power), and that the front lenses (furthest from your eyes) are 35 millimeters wide.

For birding, you want power of 7, 8, 9, or 10, and width of 35 mm or more.  So 7 x 35, or 8 x 40, or even 10 x 42 are excellent for birding.

So-called “opera glasses” (typically, 8 x 20 or 9 x 25), have good power but narrow front lenses, so your field of view will be diminished, not as bright, and birds will be more difficult to locate.

If you don’t have a binocular of at least 35 mm width, don’t feel you need to buy a new one for these courses.  But you might try to borrow a wider pair from a friend.  If you are considering buying new ones anyway, ask me for my handout on binoculars; it has a number of useful suggestions.

Questions?  Contact me at: mike4ffoster@gmail.com