Here is your chance to learn the basics of birding firsthand. If you’ve never been birding before or you consider yourself a beginner birder, there’s nothing that can help you more than being with a group of fellow beginners and a good leader. Rich’s enthusiasm and knowledge make this a fun and rewarding experience. You will get binocular basics and learn how to look for and identify a number of different types of birds. In about 90 minutes covering just a 1/2 mile you can see ducks, shorebirds, marsh birds, and maybe migrants. After the Wetlands, you will travel 7 miles to Rich and Nanette Armstrong’s house where you will see how to set up a yard (they have over 20 feeders) to attract birds and learn to identify different riparian birds. There will be binoculars to borrow if you do not have any, and you will get to look through Rich’s scope.

Rating: 2

Transportation: Self-drive

Meal: None

Cost: $40
Trip Guide: Rich Armstrong

Rich Armstrong became a serious birder with his wife Nanette 35 years ago when they lived in Texas. He has birded across North America, and now in Arizona for the past 11 years. He is the coordinator of the Sedona CBC, is the birding pal for the Verde Valley, and coordinates the North America Migratory Bird Count for Yavapai County. He is the local Audubon Chapter Steward for the Sedona Wetlands Preserve. Affectionately known as the ‘big mouth of the valley,’ he has led over 100 birding field trips at the Wetlands with his spotting scope always in tow– the ‘fastest scope in the west’. Rich Armstrong received a PhD in Nuclear Inorganic Chemistry from Stanford University, retired as a Major in the U.S. Army Reserves, and was a chemist for Texaco Chemical for 20 years.

Part of the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival