Hi Peter
Hi think it's great that you're doing this and I applaude your efforts.
Good tips might be:
- To purchase reasonable binos. I know beginners may not understand the
need, or have the committment to spend big bucks but advise them to at least
avoid the real cheepies :-)
- To purchase a good name field guide and always carry it with them (place
in plastic bag if rain threatens, even if daypack is waterproof). Also
inform them that no matter how much they think they might know down the
line, that the sign of an expert is that he or she always has a field guide.
- Show beginners how to differentiate between birds in a field guide by a
process of elimination of diagnostic features. ie: differentiating between
an Eastern Yellow Robin and a Golden Whistler or a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
and a Cicada Bird.
- Always asure beginners that they will sort out their local birds very
quickly and this makes it easier to progress in identification of less
frequently observed species from further afield. If you (the expert) tell
them this from the start and give them the tools to do so, they will fulfil
your prediction and become good at their new hobby/obsession as they'll have
no reason to believe otherwise
- Get them interested in identification by calls very early. Some don't take
enough of an interest in this facet of birding and miss out on a great deal.
Explain how some birds are very easily overlooked but by knowing their calls
they'll see lots more. Plus to walk into a forest and know every call feels
great and brings you very deeply in touch with what's going on around you.
- Interest beginners in joining Birds Australia and or a local organisation
and get some brochures from the organisations to hand out or display
- In the field, enthuse them with stories of the behaviour, biology and
ecology of the birds, it just adds so much to the excitement of the whole
event and will hook them
- Very important. Teach them to identify all the Little Brown Birds in the
area. I find a lot of beginners are counfounded, frustrated and turned off
by the fact that they cannot ID these types of birds. They may, like many of
us, come to find them some of the most interesting of all.
I hope at least some of these will be of use and will probably get you
thinking up more too. If I think of others, I'll forward them onto you.
Regards - Ricki
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