[EBB Sightings] Bird Song Class at Merritt Soon!

All;

This is a birding event post. Contains no sightings.
 
Daniel Edelstein is teaching "Bird Songing: The Ecology of Birds' Songs and
Identifying Them By Ear" at Merritt College starting 4/17. 
 
The class is scheduled to meet Thurs nites 7--10 pm, 4/17, 4/24, and 5/1.
There are field trips on Sat 4/26 and 5/3 and Sunday 4/20, 4/27, and 5/4.
Here is a link to the entry in the class schedule (BIOL 80B):
http://www.peralta.cc.ca.us/classchd/082/MBIOL0.HTM. 
 
Here is Daniel's description of the class from a press release on it:
 
"Sure, people enjoy learning bird songs from among the more than 75
different singing and calling species that are common on the landscape this
time of year.  But there's plenty of other hands-on, interactive devices I
employ to make the class fun and interesting - from slides, videos, DVDs,
handouts, bibliographies/resources, and Internet Web site searches related
to song ecology in the classroom to "ears-on" (i.e., hands-on, interactive)
techniques on the field trips that utilize my iPod (that plays songs with
the aid of a portable speaker), a SonicEar amplifier that you wear as a
headset (to more easily hear the bird vocalizations in the field), and
binoculars (that I lend to students for free, if they don't have a pair)." 

"Edelstein is glad to have students attend a portion of the class's
offerings, if they cannot attend all three lectures and all five field
trips.  "The important goal is to get students out listening and enjoying
the amazing landscape of birds with which we host our world."  He adds:
"Learning a few new songs of different species each spring season is a lot
of fun for students.  The majority also like knowing the reasons why birds
sing, how they sing, how they learn to sing, and new techniques to
distinguish them from sound-alike bird species.  I guess that's why my most
popular handout sheet is called "Top Ten Techniques for Identifying Birds By
Ear."
 
To register, go to www.merritt.edu   or
www.peralta.edu .  Look in the Spring 08 class
schedule. The class appears as both a biology (BIOL 80B) and environmental
studies class (ENVIRO 80B) at the aforementioned Web sites with students
needing to also note the class section as 1515 or 1516, respectively.
Students may take the class as pass/fail or for credit (variable from .5 to
2.5 credits, depending on a student's preference).

Daniel is a professtional naturalist and a well-known North Bay birder. I
took his raptor biology class last year at Merritt and learned a lot. His
grasp of birds, wildlife, plants, and ecology is amazing. Here is a link to
his web site. It contains some good info on bird arrival times and other
stuff: http://home.earthlink.net/~edelstein/

THERE ARE ONLY ABOUT 10 SEATS LEFT IN THE CLASS. SO SIGN UP SOON!

Good Birding
Harv Wilson