A 10 experience! Excellent! Thank you so much for your thorough material and attention to detail – Well done!!Pam Borso, President - North Cascades Audubon Society
A 10! It was an awesome experience and I look forward to the banding course!
Kris Mohoruk
10+ I LOVE the passion – it’s infectious!!
Joan Nicholson
10 – Could not have asked for more!
Andrew Venning – Hemmera
10 – Great stuff – much more than I needed to know for NSBS but more knowledge for the better!
McKenzie Lee – Sartori E. S.
Fantastic!
Nikita Aizikovsky
10! Fantastic, informative, humbling – very comprehensive – got more than I wanted from the course!
10!! I enjoyed the workshop very much. I am pleased with the information/experiences I can take away with me and build on.
Carolyn Beatson – Capilano University
10! Awesome – terrific – well presented – good, useful information, practical application. I’m glad I found the course – well worth the $ and time!
Kaye Simard
10! Fantastic workshop, really knowledgeable instructor and lots of information to absorb.
Bridget Dunne
10! Something I will remember for the rest of may life! I will highly recommend this course to all my friends and hope to see you again!
10! Excellent coverage of material and good pace. The review exercises and field trip really helped to reinforce the learning. Thanks for the time and effort you put in to this!
Asher Steed
10! Had a wonderful experience! Great to know birders who take such care and concern for our birds!
Tanya Patzke
10! Excellent experience – I have only good things to say – Thanks!
Christine Dalton – University Fraser Valley (UFV)
10! Excellent- Great course – lots of great info absorbed and lots of tools to work with!
Kevin Lake
Wonderful, very informative and I am excited to start birding – 9.5 – would have liked coloured pictures in our take home binders!
Chelsea Coady
10! Thank you – enjoyed the field component very much!
10! Really wonderful weekend, learned so much information that I can’t wait to put to good use!
Ashley Watson
10! AWESOME!
A 10 experience! It was a very enjoyable way to increase my birding skills and knowledge – you made it fun! I especially liked the morning spent at Colony Farm and the chance to see the birds up close.
A 10 experience! Lots of fun – never a dull moment – left me wanting more!
Robin Taylor – Hatch Ltd
Interesting and inspirational! It was also very challenging and worthwhile. I learned a lot and where to go to learn more! Thank you!
Marguerite Mousseau
A 10 experience – Great…overwhelming!
World class! 10! Exhausting in a good way – I’m full and will be ruminating on this for a long time!
Ruth Foster – Burke Mountain Naturalists
Excellent! Very comprehensive and thorough – Learned more than I expected!
Sam Micner
I marveled at the energy and passion of the Derek/Carol duo! I learned in abundance and the handouts and notes are great takeaways for reflection. This was truly a workshop and not just talk, talk, talk – Thanks a bunch!
Louise Routledge
A 10 experience! Tiring but very rewarding – a great intro and base to start using in the field – can’t wait to come banding again!
Sarah Legros – MetroVancouver
Had a wonderful time!
Alida Faurie
Great! A lot of information, wonderful for beginner or intermediate birders, wonderful presentation and a great flow to the course – Great job!
Janelle Stephenson
A 10 experience! Very good, engaging and easy to keep attentive.
Adam Stephenson
A 10! Loved the field exercise and all the other info!
Cathy McClean – Fisheries & Oceans
Great! Lots of enthusiasm! Lots of information but presented in manageable bits. Really enjoyed it!
Samantha Gidora
Very helpful – very informative – Instructor knowledge impressive – more importantly, shared enthusiasm and able to communicate knowledge well – THANK YOU!
A 10 EXPERIENCE! Excellent organization of the weekend – welcoming – I loved that we were able to use every minute of our time to learn and review – worked hard but not too hard! Thanks!
Beyond expectations – excellent content – fast paced but understandable – Thank you!
Learned a LOT!
A 10 experience! Enjoyable, interesting, inspiring – need to now go and review and practice!
A 10 experience! A wonderful and inspiring learning experience! THANK YOU Derek and Carol!
Brita Bentz – Envirowest
A 10 experience! Excellent! Thank you so much for your thorough material and attention to detail – Well done!!
Pam Boro – North Cascades Audubon Society
A 10 – GREAT!
A 10 EXPERIENCE! Really enjoyed the course especially the field session – great seeing the birds up close
Anne Ruhterford
10! Excellent – Gave me the tools to advance my birding skills
Stephanie Christensen – Ecofor Consulting
We just came home and spent some time looking at the birds at the feeders and it is so nice to quickly ID the birds with confidence. All the stuff we learned immediately works – It’s really great – We are really pleased.
It was all so well organized and so professionally done. I will definitely tell the gals at Wild Birds Unlimited here on the North Shore and my other birding friends that if they want an immediate injection of bird knowledge, then take this workshop!
Thank you both,
Heidi Van Impe – North Vancouver
Excellent – enjoyed the quick pace and review / repetition was great – excellent for drilling in the information – comprehensive – great visual, fantastic enthusiasm (seriously it helps!)
Erica Lok – Hemmera Environmental
A 10 experience – very helpful in keeping me engaged – very good course. A good jump start as we approach spring migration – got me excited to go birding!
Jay Rourke – Expert birder – Hemmera Environmental
A 10 experience – a lot of information to digest but very interactive which kept energy levels and attention spans up! Extremely well organized – can’t wait for the banding workshop!
Stacie Kalyn – Dillon Consutling Limited
It was upper informative – Derek is an awesome speaker and the exercises kept us updated and interested – it was FANTASTIC! THANK YOU!
Ana Mendes – Wildlife Rescue Association of BC
A 10 experience – Thanks for sharing your vast knowledge – I don’t feel so overwhelmed anymore by my lack thereof!
Sandy Girardot – Wildlife Rescue Association of BC
An 11 out of 10 experience! I would recommend this course to any bird enthusiast, especially in conjunction with the banding / ageing workshop. Learned a ton! Thanks so much – you’re both awesome!
Annette Potvin
Fantastic experience – slightly overwhelming but learned a lot of useful and practical information.
Geoff Smart – EBB Environmental
Great – good teaching – content great – photos great – photo exercise and quiz good – Keep at it – you’re a great resource and team!
Charlie Palmer – Senior Ecologist – Hemmera Environmental
Great experience – jam packed with information and great training tool – Great refresher course for gearing up the filed season – very energetic course instructor – a 10 experience!
Eileen Miranda – Hemmera Environmental
Enjoyed it – The team challenges were a great way to keep everyone engaged – A 10 experience!
Ashleigh Ballevona – Hemmera Environmental
It was great – I had fun – Derek is an excellent and enthusiastic teacher – Carol is also very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. I learned more than I thought I would and realize there is much more to learn!
Brian Paterson – Hemmera Environmental
My search for a class that would help me boost my field skills to the next level took me over the border to the Vancouver Avian Research Centre Bird I.D. class this weekend. Holy smoke, what a cool class!
It started with a solid foundation in bird topography and physiology and progressed into field marks, songs, behavior and habitat. Even though some of the folks in the class were beginning birders, we were led right into the fray of bird I.D., using field marks and songs to distinguish even shorebirds and empidonax flycatchers with growing confidence as the weekend progressed.
Kudos go to Derek and Carol for putting together a curriculum that gets across so much information in a short period of time, reinforced via practice exercises and repetition. I recommend this class without reservation and my friends are going to be getting earfuls of info that I picked up from it.
After this weekend I am itching to take the bird-banding class that Joel Brady-Power spoke so well of last week.
Megan McGinty – North Cascades Institute
It was an excellent workshop to inform people of what is flying around them! Very fun, very informative – a 10 experience
Erin O’Connor
A 10 experience! – I enjoyed the pictures and fill in the blanks workbook!
Michelle Williams
Very good starting point to get over the big barriers of bird ID – very worthwhile as I feel I have saved myself time and frustration in learning this stuff – quick but with lots of reviews – great – a 10 experience!
Anna Milner
Clear and organized – lots of information for a 3 day course – a 10 experience!
Angela Cormano – EBA Engineering Consultants
An 11 out of 10 experience! :o) It was great – I learned wonderful tools to help me in the field and become a better birder!
Julie Rivers
It was a good foundation for improving my skills – slowly but surely I’m becoming a bird nerd! The Bittern and Mountain Bluebirds were fabulous!
Leslie Bol – Rescan Environmental Services Ltd
Learned a lot!!
Vanessa Sadler – Diamond Head Consulting
As a very new birder I found the course to be so helpful in starting me off in the right direction! I feel like I’ve gained a year’s worth of knowledge in a weekend!
Crystal Rousseau – Stantec
Excellent – A 10 experience!
Murray Lashmar – Arran Environmental Services
Great learning experience – I got what I wanted out of the course and then some! Thanks.
Glen Carlson – A Rocha Canada
Mind blowing! – A 10.9 out of 10 experience! Can we do it again?!
Alan Russell – Stoney Creek Environmental Committee
Great organization and mix of background theory and identification of local/common species – pretty fast but good to cover so much.
Megan Turnock – Phoenix Environmental (Vancouver)
A 10+ experience – This was a tremendous experience to learn about the wonder of birds – Looking forward to the Bird Banding Workshop!
Ligia Ercius DiPaola – Wildlife Rescue
You are an excellent team – organized, generous and determined to give us the best learning experience – I learned hugely. I learned more then I expected – a 10 experience!
Lois Woolf
It was intense but learned a lot – good to have both class time and field time – very interesting – good teaching methods – a 10 experience!
Fiona Crichton – Crichton Environmental Consulting
For a non-birder nature lover – really TOPS! – a 10 experience!
Daniel Chesluk
It was great – exciting – fast moving – filled with all kinds of information – a 10 experience!
Martha Chesluk
It gave me the knowledge base to work on becoming the birder I’ve always wanted to be – a 10+ experience!
Rebekka Lindskoog – Summit Environmental
I highly recommend the ID course, for anyone thinking about it – A fabulous course!
Peter Lypkie
Outstanding! A 10 experience – I not only came away knowing more than I expected I ended up with more questions that I couldn’t even have formed prior to this. This to me is a great measure of learning – Thank you so much for the opportunity!
Marlisse McRobie
It was very informative and a great 10 experience – Thank you!
Katie Furness-Moore
Definitely a 10++ experience! I came to the course with no previous knowledge and left with an understanding and appreciation of the groups of birds, field markings and ability to recognize some of the songs. I would never have been able to do this on my own – Thanks for a great course!
Nancy Furness
I realize now there is so much more to bird watching – Loved the field experience and watching bird banding – A 10 experience!
Linda Malcolm
Good pace, good division of material delivered, good setting, excellent delivery – spot on!
Chris Lee – Aquaterra Biological Consulting
I learned a lot – Really enjoyed the people, the instructor and the great experience – Keep up the good work!! I like the environmental information
Brad Grasser
The workshop was useful and excellent – The early morning view of banding was especially useful – very well done – a 10 experience!
Nancy Flood
Excellent course – very valuable information taught in a manner that is easy to learn and remember.
Byron Kirkham
A 10 experience…well 11! It was more than I expected – gained confidence and knowledge to take my birding experiences to another level. Thank you!
An 11 experience! Fabulous – extensive coverage – packed with information want more!