Friday, August 3:

9:00am - 12:00; (Meet in the Super 8 motel parking lot - car pool) Pre-workshop field trip for those who come in on Thursday night and want to jumpstart their shorebird I.D. skills. It will also be a chance to visit some of the locations that we will be using during the weekend and orient ourselves with the area.

1:00pm - 2:00pm; (Super 8 motel; downstairs meeting room) Registration / Orientation / General information for the weekend.

2:00pm - 3:00pm; Our first classroom session will deal with the basic techniques that are unique to finding shorebirds and getting ourselves into the right location with the right equipment to make accurate identification possible.

3:00pm - 7:00pm; Field trip - car pool. All of our field trips will focus on getting us very close to as many species of shorebird as possible. Good close looks in good lighting will be our most important tool to learning and identification.

Saturday, August 4:

8:00am - 12:00; (Meet in the Super 8 motel parking lot - car pool) Field trip. We want lots of birds; lots of species; and as close as possible. "Every minute spent away from shorebirds during this weekend is considered a wasted minute".

12:30pm - 2:30pm; Our noon lunch (included in the workshop fee) will be very special this year. We have reserved a very small country restaurant outside of  Milbank that only serves homemade meals made from locally grown and produced ingredients. Nothing is wasted on surroundings or décor. All the effort is focused on the food, it's preparation, and presentation. Our chef is also the owner and is absolutely meticulous about freshness and quality. It isn't just eating lunch; it's an experience. There will be a classroom session at the restaurant after lunch.

2:30pm - 5:00pm; Field trip - car pool. This trip will be where we get serious about identification. The trip will focus on separating the most difficult to identify pairs of shorebird species. We will be working on the fine points of plumage, feeding habits, and "jizz" that can make an accurate identification possible.

7:00pm - 8:00pm: (Meet at the Pizza Ranch on Main St. - back room) We will study the identification field marks of the full range of species that occur in this area. It will also be a session titled "Separating the Tough Ones" that starts to focus on the more difficult identification problems associated with specific species.

Sunday, August 5:

8:00am - 9:00am; (Meet at the Super 8 motel meeting room) "The Final Exam" & "Really Bad Photos" are the titles for this classroom session. A chance to try out the identification skills we have learned during the workshop.

9:00am - 12:00; The final field trip and a great chance to use the field skills that we have acquired during the shorebird workshop weekend.