Birmingham offer a Msc in Ornithology, one Saturday per month , one weekend field trip and a week residential . next intake October 2010, we have just missed this year.

I started a foundation degree in ornithology at Bishop Burton college in Beverley, East Yorkshire. I didnt finish though various personal reasons. It was one weekend a month. It was very interesting and certainly got you to know about ornithology. I think you could go on to further courses if I can remember properly, and got you closer to ornithology jobs, bird ringing etc

Worth a look!

The BTO runs a number of courses, mainly on survey techniques. Details are in BTO News or you could e-mail su.gough@bto.org (she is responsible for training). As far as I know there are no courses planned for this area but, if there was demand, then I'm sure we could arrange it - let me know...

The Field Studies Council also runs short residential courses on a wide range of natural history subjects which might be of interest.

Steve

I have to say, that it's surprising what limitations there are to finding stuff out there to learn that's actually seen to be 'therapeutic' or 'hobby' based... but then again, I suppose running courses would depend on the number of people willing to participate...

There's a hell of a lot less available as evening courses in geeral now anyhow - locally at one point you'd be able to do numerous GCSEs - now it's pretty limited... so anyone wanted to do history/languages etc. will struggle in the Wigan area, I know that (my wife and I looked into it, as we wanted to do German as a GCSE - no chance).

Pardon me for being a miseable s*d here, but WHY aren't there more 'enjoyment' based courses out there instead of the 'work based' or 'academia' related stuff... I did 3 years for my Nursing Diploma, so personally I reckon I've done a fair whack in that respect... but as to other stuff...

Ah, I'll leave it at that - I'll start whinging here... if I've not done so already.


Neil.

I looked into this myself in one of those 'think-I'll-jack-my-job-in-and-do-something-else' moments - the reality of which soon kicks in. Amazingly at degree level there is practically nothing. There is an ornithology degree at Lancaster University and a distance learning course at Exeter University and others that are part of zoology, enivronment etc. courses. Quite amazing when you consider the wealth of amateur knowledge of the subject and the traditions of BTO survey work etc. in this country. I'd be prepared to bet that Ian knows more than any of the lecturers on these courses put together anyway and the mystery bird comp is a great learning curve. Especially for those who are totally rubbish at it like me!

Cheers for the info. folks - I'm not actualy after attending anything at the moment anyhow - apologies if that came across wrong... basically I sat there and thought:

"Hmm... I wonder what there is, if anything, for people out there if they wanted to do a course re: this".

For me, I'm happy with the books (cheers for the comments... I've loads, from Bill Oddie's stuff to numerous field guides to more obscure stuff from the '50s etc.), DVDs pluse actually 'going out there' and doing it 'proper' plus speaking with other birders/rangers etc.

The one you mention does sound good Melanie - as I said, I'm not really after attending anything myself, but I thought this could be a useful 'resource' thread, and therefore I'm sure more people will find the info. useful!

Again, thanks all for your input - very much appreciated!


Neil.

Hi Neil l've attended a very informative Birdwatching Class since last year,at Prestwich Library on Monday evenings,it's run by Peter Baron,Eltons Recorder for 20 years.
In these Winter months thru' till Spring we have slide shows,brush up on identification and listen to different bird songs and calls,plus sharing with the class where we've been and what we've seen etc....Come the lighter nights we also go out,and some Sundays/Bank Holidays to Wales,Blacktoft or local,just wherever Peter knows we'll get our target bird....he's always delivered.Got my first ever Cuckoo this year on the day he said we would,at Astley.He's very friendly,funny and welcomes birders at whatever level they're at of learning.His classes are not just on Mondays nights either need anymore info,just lemme know......best wishes from Melanie.

-- Edited by Melanie Beckford at 09:57, 2008-10-08

Hi neil , salford college in worsley ran a course on birds , it was way back in the mid eighties i think and was held at little hulton library one night a week. The guy who ran the course was from the bolton naturalist group , [ahh memories] i can only remember him as frank ,sadly i don,t think he is with us any more.

I got back into 'birding' after attending WEA classes at Parrs Wood on Bird Watching run by Peter Wolstenholme. In the winter we would 'study' a group of birds say "Thrushes" and listen to tapes and look at plumage features using the Shell bird guide.
In the Spring we would combine 2 or 3 classes into a Saturday car trip out to Sandbach/Frodsham/Macc Forest or wherever and see birds in the field. As the days got lighter we would have evening trips out to Alderley Edge/Pennington etc.

I found them very useful to get to find the local hot-spots (I was brought up in Cheltenham) and to meet other birders. Of course this was pre-Internet days !

Neil, somewhere in the distance past I re-call some university running a course, it was advertised in the BIRDWATCHING magazine, believe WH Smiths is the place to pick that up,

Also have a look at Discovering Birds by Ian Wallace and Birdwatching by Bill Oddie excellent foundation books to add that extra boost on these dark nights.

But as Geoff says the Collins guide is fantastic as are the articles on the website, but the best thing is to get out there look a the birds write notes and work out why is a great tit a great tit where are its primaries its tertials etc make loads of notes on heads wings tails wing structure and read about moult BTO do a nice little guide number 19, learn the common birds and that biggy will be easy when it pops ups



Keep Birding.

Neil,the missus 'works' at the tech and would have told me of any directly related courses
so apart from photography,art,spelling, IT,enviromental stuff ect you.ll probably struggle to achive a GCSE in birding.If you read the collins bird guide (which i didnt, for six months)it has a wealth of info on how to and when to birdwatch and should be studied in depth on these long winter nightsplus there,s reams of good stuff on the main website

cheers geoff

Just curious really... I've been thinking about the numerous courses that Wigan Tech once did (but sadly don't any more) which had such diverse subjects as creative writing, astronomy, archaeology etc. etc. The question is - Has anyone any info. on courses re: Birding/Birds/Ornithology etc. either past, present or future? It's amazing what you think of when you can't sleep eh - but curiosity does get the better of me at times! Any answers/info. appreciated! Regards. Neil.