According to a Monday news release, there will be a Building Better Birders and Citizen Scientists workshop set for Tuesday, May 16, at the Hamilton County Conservation Office, 2490 Briggs Woods Trail, Webster City.

The workshop — which is free to attend — starts at 6:30 a.m. and concludes at 3:30 p.m. Hamilton County Conservation welcomes guests to attend as many or as few as they would like.

There will be an Early Morning Bird Walk from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at Shelter 2 and the Woodland Trail Head, followed by the first part of a two-part “Introduction to Birds of Iowa” program given by avian researcher Kelly McKay at 9 a.m. After a quick break, there will be an “Introduction to Blue Bird House Success” by Jaclyn Hill, scheduled for 10:45 a.m. At 11:45 a.m., the workshop will break for lunch.

The workshop resumes at 1 p.m. with the second part of the “Introduction to Birds of Iowa” program, and at 2:45 p.m., there will be an “Introduction to Butterfly Gardens” program by John Laird.

This is the first of three workshops to be given by McKay, and funding for this workshop was provided by the Resource Enhancement and Protection – Conservation Education Program (REAP-CEP).

Workshop #2 will be held Wednesday, June 14, and Workshop #3 will be held Friday, January 19, 2024. Both of the future workshops will also take place at Briggs Woods Park. McKay is a recognized leader in the birding field throughout the Midwest. His 40 years of experience in the field as an avian researcher and educator makes these workshops special.

This workshop is conducted by McKay of Bio-Eco Research and Monitoring Center, with assistance from Mark Roberts, Clinton County Conservation, and Brian Ritter and Jimmy Wiebler of Nahant Marsh Education Center, located outside of Davenport.

The mission is to create birders, all across Iowa, that can contribute to the knowledge about birds across the state, through participation in Citizen Science programs such as Christmas Bird Counts, Great Backyard Bird Count, Project Feeder Watch, or even Monarch Butterfly Tagging.

For more information, you can go to https://buildingbetterbirders.com or you can contact McKay at 309-235-4661.