Help for newbies

I often take out people who are becoming or have shown an interest in moths or other insects on short field trips to point out how to find and record them. Having been helped out in this way myself when I first started recording moths and finding it much quicker way to becoming more competent in my identifications and probably more importantly in the case of insects, how to find the early stages which are sometimes the easiest way to confirm species. I wonder if anyone in the bird group is willing to take out newbies on field trips with the same view in mind? This need not be anything special as it could simply take the form of a trip out to a local area they would be visiting anyway. I have often seen birders whilst out cycling etc and most seem only too willing to have a chat about what is around at the moment, this would be just taking it a stage further.

I also wonder if someone could do a brief description with salient features illustrated of similar or difficult species ? Having had trouble sorting out various very similar looking LBJ moths in my early days I can see the pitfalls of this with birds. Often in moth guides ones sees two species that are very similar but once you have seen both (or had the differences pointed out in the field) they become very easy to separate and you wonder why you thought it difficult in the first place.

I realise that most of us are very busy with work and family life and don't want to squander what little free time we have for our hobbies on dragging other people around, but the occasional half hour would help people becoming interested in birds to speed up the learning curve