Personalised bird language mentoring
In addition to his 6-week online bird language series and face to face workshops, I also offer one-on-one Zoom-based mentoring. Personalised mentoring is ideal for those people who really want to get serious about going deep with bird language and nature connection.
Mentoring arrangements can be tailored to your needs but I would generally recommend we start at scheduling a 1hr Zoom meeting per fortnight for 4 fortnights, with monthly meetings after that as required for your learning needs. You should also expect to be given challenge-based bird language homework to complete between mentoring meetings.
At the heart of each mentoring session participants are encouraged to relate their nature observation stories from sit spot time between catch-ups. This forms the basis for enquiry, discussion and identifying areas for more investigation.
Andrew will support and scaffold your personal quest for venturing far off the beaten track of “normal” levels of bird nerdiness. Mentoring encourages you to recalibrate your observation skills and naturalist insights to the next level.
Perhaps a handy, and somewhat whacky, metaphor for the role that mentoring can play is to compare it to the role of the second stage booster on a Saturn V space rocket. Attending one of my workshops or online learning series does the initial heavy lift of blasting you off on a journey of self-discovery, but to truly escape the lower atmosphere and travel to the stars you’ll need a second stage booster.
That’s what mentoring can provide – a sustained, slow boost to escape the gravitational pull of old ways of seeing the world.
I have set the minimum mentoring booking at 4 sessions of 1 hour each. This is because I reckon we’ll need this many meetings to really make progress in advancing your personal growth with forming a deeper connection to birds and wild nature. The start date, preferred day of the week and timing for sessions can be sorted out between us to fit around our work and family commitments, but generally I prefer weeknights between 6 and 9pm if possible.
What my past students have to say about their mentoring experience:
“ After undertaking the Mount Hyland Bird Language workshop in 2025, I knew I needed more skills and knowledge to finesse and deepen the skills that I had learnt on that weekend. I was concerned that without guidance tailored to me and my sit spot, I would lose what I had learnt on that weekend quickly.
So, I decided to undertake 1:1 mentoring with Andrew.
This took my sense of nature/place connection as well as my birding skills to a level I would not have imagined possible for myself a year ago. Andrew deepened the skills that I learned at the retreat and built upon them in a way that utilised my natural interests.
The great thing was that it was tailored specifically to what my place/ sit spot was offering me as the learner. The sessions were well paced and guided in a way that was confidence and curiosity building. Andrew shared skill sets/drills and resources that I will use for the rest of my life.
I can’t recommend these sessions highly enough, they are excellent value for money.” (Lilli)