Become a better birder with a three-part introductory course on Ornithology, led by expert in the field, Andrew Melnykovych. The workshop includes two classroom portions where topics covered include, an introduction to birding, tools for birding, birding at home, birding organizations, and more. The course ends with a culminating birding walk to practice what you have learned in the classroom. For the classroom sessions, we recommend bringing a pen and notebook. For the field class on June 8th, please dress for the weather and bring a pair of binoculars if you have them. This class is free for members of The Parklands and/or Beckham Bird Club and $10 for non-members. Pre-registration is required, please sign up using the link below. The registration covers all three parts of the birding 101 workshop.

Dates and Times:

Class 1 – May 30th, 2024 – 7:00 pm in the PNC Achievement Center, Beckley Creek Park

Class 2 – June 6th , 2024 – 7:00 pm in the PNC Achievement Center, Beckley Creek Park

Birding Walk – June 8th , 2024 – 7:30 am – 11am meet at The John Floyd Community Building at Pope Lick Park

About your Instructor: Andrew Melnykovych is past president of the Beckham Bird Club of Louisville, Kentucky. He coordinates and leads field trips for the organization and often gives presentations on birds and birding. He has seen more than 600 species of birds in the US and Canada, and twice that many worldwide, in 38 countries and Antarctica. Melnykovych is a graduate of Yale University, holding a Bachelor of Sciences degree in biology and a Master of Forest Sciences from the Yale School of the Environment. He also did graduate work in population ecology at the University of Wyoming. Melnykovych has been an environmental writer for newspapers in Wyoming and Kentucky and was the communications director for the Kentucky Public Service Commission from 2002 until 2020.