Courses are organised by a committee headed up by Priscilla Beeton and Joel Radue.
These cover many birding topics; ID courses for tricky species like LBJs, Waders, Raptors and Seabirds, a Beginners ID course for new members.
Other topics including Climate Change, Bird Migration, Bird Evolution, Digital Photography, the Eco Systems of our Sea Shores, Dragonflies & Damselflies have all been covered in the last few years.
Many of these courses have field trips included so that participants can put their newly learned knowledge into practice.
Saturday 12 November 2016 To be honest, I could not tell the difference between a Dragonfly and a Damselfly, before this course… and this is from someone that can separate Lesser Swamp and Little Rush Warblers quite well! Felicity Grundlingh started with this vital point. From then on we were ‘flying’. Did you know Dragonflies have compound eyes with 30 000 lenses and 360 degree vision? The life-cycle and reproduction is quite fascinating with some nymphs staying under water for several years before emerging into adults and only living several months… Many people think they only live for a day. … Continued
This course presented by Professor George Branch demonstrated just how "our shores are enriched by the ecosystem effects of birds and how important birds are in coastal ecosystems". After a overview participants went to shore at Greenpoint, the tide was perfect, low tide at 10.30h and allowed everyone to explore life on the rocks, collect material to analyse in more detail later. See the photos below of what was collected in dishes to examine and learn more about them. Photographs by Priscilla Beeton and Cathy Jenkins. George, a brilliant presenter, then went on to elaborate more on how rocky-shore life deals … Continued
