Sign-up for our brand-new intro to birding class at Cool Spring Preserve!

PVAS Host: Katelyn Walters & Carol Winckler

$20/person (PVAS members receive a 10% discount). Ages 12 and older only. Anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult participant. Registration is required for all participants and limited to 15 participants.

PVMN Continuing Education Credit Eligible

Due to the popularity of our Birding 101 course, which unfortunately will not be offered in 2024, we are creating a new introductory course to birds that can be readily found in your local backyard.

This is a one-session, classroom course followed by feeder birding at Cool Spring Preserve. An impressive collection of images and recordings, many captured by our beloved Birding 101 instructors, enhance the course. Birding 100 is designed for beginners, but those looking to enhance their skills are also welcome! This course is also to help you get set up for the Great Backyard Bird Count, a nationwide community science project that will be held February 16-19.

Topics covered include:

• Field guides and birding apps
• Binoculars
• Types of feeders
• Kinds of birdseed
• Common feeder birds for our area, sight and sound ID
• Birding hotspots in our area
• Birding community science initiatives

Please note: Birding 100 is NOT a prerequisite for Birding 101. All of the Birding 100 birds will also be covered in Birding 101, but Birding 100 presents you with a smaller set of birds that you can find at backyard feeders.

About KC Walters: Katelyn (KC) Walters, a Shepherdstown native, is our Associate Director of Conservation and Operations. KC is a Shepherd alumna, and holds a M.S. in Biology, with a focus in forest ecology, from James Madison University. Her master’s thesis evaluated the long-term effectiveness of treating hemlock trees for hemlock woolly adelgid infestation in Shenandoah National Park. During her college education, she interned with The Conservation Fund: Freshwater Institute and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. After graduation, she worked with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in southeastern Louisiana where she served as a forestry technician and became a certified Wildland Firefighter. KC then returned home to Shepherdstown and worked with Sustainable Solutions LLC as the Lead Natural Resources and GIS Technician.  She joined the PVAS Team in April 2018 as the Land and Conservation Manager.  Just shy of five years later, in January 2023, KC was promoted to the Associate Director position she holds today. KC enjoys riding horses, working with her dog, Paisley, on agility training, and stewarding the natural resources on her own property.

About Carol Winckler: Carol Winckler is a native of Western Illinois, and is a retired Elementary Physical Education Teacher from Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.  Since the fall of 2016, she has been part of the C & O Canal Classroom Corps… who are retired teachers helping the park meet its education program requests with schools.  In 2018, she became a West Virginia Master Naturalist with the local Potomac Valley Chapter.  She has been a student and part of Potomac Valley Audubon’s Birding 101 class since 2007.

Register Here!