Alabama Audubon Live Online Course: Audubon at Home: Gulls

Pre-registration is required by 12 p.m. CST on Monday, February 14th. For more information and to register, visit alaudubon.org/event/2022-02-15.

Gulls, along with small shorebirds, are one of the most confusing groups for many birders—especially those just starting out in birding or just starting to tackle these more difficult groups. Join Drew Haffenden for this two session course designed to introduce you to gulls. We’ll learn how to identify them along the same lines as the approach taken in previous classes with shorebirds and terns. We will be looking at the gulls likely to be seen in Alabama in winter and spring. Although we’ll be concentrating on our usual suspects, we’ll also include less common and rarer gulls that are regularly seen in the state.

This course is meant to be both beginner-friendly as well as informative for more advanced birders.

Where and when do we meet? This online course meets on two consecutive Tuesdays (2/15 and 2/22), from 6–7 p.m. CST. It will be a one-hour online class with some time at the end for questions.

Cost: Your one-time registration fee of $20 covers the two meetings.* (While you are not required to attend each class, do note that we cannot refund individuals for partial attendance.) We will be recording the webinar and making it available to participants for a week after the class. *We understand there are economic barriers that many are facing during this time. If you live in Alabama and would like to request financial assistance, visit alaudubon.org/event/2022-02-15.

Registration: To register, visit alaudubon.org/event/2022-02-15.

About the instructor: Andrew “Drew” Haffenden moved to Dauphin Island in 2012 from Birmingham. In an earlier life, in Australia, he was a wildlife researcher, but for the last 35 years, he was primarily involved with nature travel. Walking out on the beach one day in mid-July 2012, he noticed a snowy plover with colored leg bands, and a few days later a banded piping plover. That began an interest in shorebirds which continues to this day, learning the different species and their behaviors through time in the field. Over the years, this has led to 558 resight records of piping plovers and 540 resight records of snowy plovers, plus a sundry of other species ranging from sandpipers to terns. COVID-19 aside, he continues his work in nature travel, the last few years especially to Cuba.