Registration for this class will open 7am on October 9th.

Class Instructor: Shelia Hargis
Class level: Introductory/Intermediate
Virtual Lecture dates: Wednesday Jan 8 and Jan 15th from 6:30pm to 8pm
Field Trip Date(s): Jan 12th, 2025 from 8:00am to 11:30am
Class fee: $70 for members and $100 for non-members

Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park is one of Travis County’s top birding locations. The park has a variety of habitats, including a restored native prairie, a riparian area along Lake Austin and a small creek, and a mixed woodland canyon. This diversity makes the park attractive to many species of birds. This new class is oriented toward newer birders and will highlight some of the park’s common winter species. We’ll cover identification and where you are likely to see these species in the park. A morning field trip to the park will highlight these species and give participants a good overview of the various habitats and trails. When the class is over, students will have a good foundation for birding the park in the winter, alone or with birding friends.

Shelia Hargis is the instructor for this class. She has been birding for over 25 years and lives and breathes birds! Luckily, she recently retired and can now spend nearly all of her waking hours birding, learning about birds, and/or thinking about birds. Within the last few years, she has become very interested in watching bird behavior to better understand how birds live their lives, and she recently completed the Cornell Lab’s Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology online course with some of her birding buddies. Shelia teaches other classes, gives presentations on a variety of bird topics, surveys birds for the City of Austin and the North American Breeding Bird Survey, participates in numerous Christmas Bird Counts each year, and leads birding field trips. She is Past President of both Travis Audubon and Texas Ornithological Society and is still very active with both of those organizations. She is also a Capital Area Master Naturalist, Class of 2022.

The class will be comprised of two virtual classroom sessions and one field trip to Commons Ford. The classroom sessions will be held via Zoom on Wednesday evenings, January 8 & 15, from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM. The field trip will be held on January 12 from 8:00 AM – 11:30 AM. Tuition is $70 for TAS members and $100 for non-members. Registration is limited to 12. If you have any questions, contact Shelia Hargis at shelia.hargis@gmail.com or 512-294-0272.

Registration for this class will close one business day before the start of the first class.

REGISTER HERE

Payment for a class, workshop, or other fee-based event is due at the time of registration. If payment is not received within a week of registration, the registrant may be dropped from the roster. To withdraw from a class, workshop, or other fee-based event, please contact the Travis Audubon office: 512-300-BIRD (2473) or info@travisaudubon.org.

If a registrant withdraws from a class, workshop, or other fee-based event at least seven (7) days before the first session, Travis Audubon will offer a full refund less a $5.00 administrative fee that helps defray our costs. If the registrant withdraws less than seven (7) days before the first session, no refund will be made. If Travis Audubon cancels the class, workshop, or other fee-based event, we will fully refund the tuition.