The Potomac Valley Audubon Society is now accepting applications for its 2015 “Birding 101” course for beginning birders, which will be held during April.

This will be the 30th year the Society has offered this course, and it continues to be very popular.

Enrollment will be strictly limited to 24 so those who are interested are encouraged to sign up soon. The course is open to people of all ages but children younger than 15 must be accompanied throughout by an adult.

The course will be taught by two leading local bird experts: Bob Dean and Wil Hershberger.

It will utilize both evening classroom sessions and daytime field trips. Participants will learn everything from bird identification to birding techniques and resources to field etiquette. It will focus on bird species that are found in the region.

Registration is required. To register, go to the PVAS website at www.potomacaudubon.org and look for “Birding 101” under “Birding” or “Events Calendar.” Or contact Krista Hawley at 703-303-1026 or adultprograms@potomacaudubon.org.

The evening classroom sessions will start on Thursday, April 2 and be held each of the following three Thursdays (April 9, 16, and 23). All of these sessions will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center just north of Shepherdstown.

The field trips will be held at various locations around the Panhandle from roughly 7 a.m. to 12 noon on the Saturdays following the Thursday evening sessions (April 4, 11, and 18 and 25).

Tuition for the full course package of four classroom sessions and four field trips (a total of 28 hours of instruction) is $90 for PVAS members and $100 for nonmembers.

This course is part of Potomac Valley Audubon’s “Natural History Workshop” series. The series is intended for people who are interested in learning about particular natural history topics in considerable depth but cannot commit to pursue the much more comprehensive natural