​Bird Feeding Basics and Problem Solving

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TBA; 6:30 - 8:00pm

Gardiner Area Adult Ed, Gardiner Area High School

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Cost - TBA

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An introduction to creating a successful bird feeding garden, including food, feeders, pest issues, habitat, and conservation, using a powerpoint presentation chock full of expert advice, beautiful bird photos and helpful tips. Derek will help you help birds in an enjoyable and successful backyard habitat. And yes, we can keep squirrels off feeders too!

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Workshop: Gull Identification

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Part I: Saturday TBA (1:00-4:00pm)

Part II: Sunday TBA (8:00am-12:00pm)

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Cost - $

($ for Saturday lecture only)

*Contact us to register*

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Back by popular demand, this two-part workshop will get you started on unraveling the mysteries of gull identification. 

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Believe it or not, most gulls are not very difficult to tell apart even though adult and juveniles of most species look very different. We’re going to give ourselves confidence by identifying the easier plumages of our common species, and then tackle the more challenging intermediate plumages and the less-common species. By breaking down each identification into manageable choices, these accessible, fascinating, and rewarding group of birds will soon become downright easy (for most birds, most of the time, anyway!)

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Part I
Saturday will be indoors at the Freeport Community Library and divided into two sections. You need not be present for both sections.

1:00 pm-2:30 pm – Beginning Gull Identification. Using Powerpoint and book resources, we’ll start with the basics of gull identification, such as feather topography and aging. We’ll then focus on our most common species: Ring-billed, Herring, Great Black-backed, Laughing, and Bonaparte’s Gulls.

2:45 pm-4:00 pm – Advanced Gull Identification. Now comfortable with the basics, we’ll move on to the uncommon species: Lesser Black-backed, Iceland, Glaucous, and Black-legged Kittiwake. Next up will be the rarities: Little, Black-headed, and yes, even the gull-formely-known-as-Thayer’s. We’ll touch upon “Megas” such as Short-billed, Slaty-backed, and Sabine’s, and we’ll discuss hybrids. Finally, we’ll apply what we have learned to tackle and understand some identification quandaries, such as the famous “Westbrook Gull” before we finish up with some photo quizzes to test our new-found knowledge.

Part II
Field Workshop: Sunday (8:00am – 12:00pm):

We’ll likely meet in Portland (TBD) to carpool around the area to apply what we have learned. We’ll spend some time with our most common species: Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed, and then seek out Iceland and Glaucous, and perhaps we’ll find something even better! For example, during our 2026 field trip, we enjoyed the direct comparison of a 1st Cycle Glaucous Gull next to 4 1st-cycle Iceland Gulls after we practiced aging our "big three" most common gulls. We even took some time to enjoy Brant and the unexpected opportunity to study Lesser and Greater Scaup side-by-side!

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We are not offering a field-trip only option for this workshop. Therefore, you must be present for one or both parts of Saturday’s classroom session to join us on the field trip.

We hope that you will join Derek for this workshop to foster appreciation for this fascinating group of birds. ​