Amos Butler Audubon and the Indiana Audubon Society are pleased to offer a gull identification workshop followed by a field trip to Lake Michigan to view gulls.  The gull identification workship will be led by John Kendall, a fixture of lakefront birding in Indiana, on January 21 at Cool Creek Park, Hamilton County.  One week after the workshop, we will travel to northwest Indiana to put our newfound gull knowledge to the test.  

The workshop will be presented in a classroom setting on January 21, 2012, from 2pm to 5pm at the Cool Creek Park Nature Center (2000 East 151st Street, Carmel, Indiana 46033). John will teach the group about all aspects of gull identification including proper gull terminology, molt cycles, and how to identify the gulls we find in Indiana.

Then, on January 28, we will head north for a day on the lakefront to put our new gull identification skills to work with the field portion of our workshop.  John Kendall will be joined by Chicago gull expert Amar Ayyash for this portion of the workshop.  We will meet at 8am Eastern / 7am Central at a location yet to be determined that will be dictated by the presence of  gulls at that particular time period.  We will spend the morning closely studying as many species of gulls as can be found, hopefully including a rarity or two.  Probable species include: Ring-billed, Herring, Glaucous, Thayer’s, Iceland, Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls. The workshop will conclude around 1pm Eastern / 12pm Central. 
There is a $10 registration fee for this workshop with net proceeds being donated to the Northwest Indiana Migratory Bird Association. A registration form can be printed HERE.  The workshop will be limited to 40 participants.  Registration deadline is January 7, 2012.

Please contact Rob Ripma at robert.ripma@nuttybirder.com , 317-748-4140, or Don Gorney, dongorney@yahoo.com , for more information.

Additional details about the workshop and the field trip will be emailed to registrants.