[Tweeters] WOS Monthly Meeting, January 5, 2026 (on-line only) ... note Jan 26 also

[via Tweeters]

The Washington Ornithological Society (WOS) is pleased to announce our next Monthly Meeting: on Monday, January 5, 2026, Phil Mitchell will present, "Learning to be a Better Birder in the Age of AI.” Today, with a suite of AI-powered apps such as Merlin and iNaturalist, we are quickly able to identify birds, plants and other animals. Online or in-person courses may enhance our knowledge about sparrows, shorebirds and hawks. But what does it take to actually learn and retain the knowledge that enriches our birding? This talk will be an intro to the science of learning as it applies to becoming a better birder, along with a survey of the related birding apps.

Phil Mitchell has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and is a Seattle resident and avid naturalist. He combines academic research on how best to learn, with his 20+ years’ experience as a software developer to create learning apps. He is the founder and learning expert for the app “Larkwire.” Introduced in 2012, Larkwire helps birders learn sounds, visual ID and bird topography.

This meeting will be conducted virtually, via Zoom (no in-person attendance). Sign-in will begin at 7:15 pm, and the meeting commences at 7:30 pm. Please go to the WOS Monthly Meetings page:   https://wos.org/monthly-meetings/  for instructions on participation and to get the Zoom link.

When joining the meeting, we ask that you mute your device and make certain that your camera is turned off.

This meeting is open to all as WOS invites everyone in the wider birding community to attend. Thanks to the generosity of our presenters, recordings of past programs are available at the following link to the WOS YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@washingtonornithologicalso7839/videos

If you are not yet a member of WOS, we hope you will consider becoming one at  https://wos.org

Please join us!

SPECIAL NOTE: Due to a date conflict, the February 2026 Monthly Meeting will take place one week earlier, on January 26. Please mark your calendars. 

Elaine Chuang
WOS Program Support