Great Backyard Bird Count

If you're a birder, if you're not a birder but would like to be, or if you just want to have a little fun, plan to participate in The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) February 13 - 16. The GBBC is a joint project of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon Society.

The GBBC encourages bird watchers of all ages and levels of expertise to participate in this annual event designed to "create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent." It's easy - you count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more of the days of the event, February 13 - 16 (Friday through Monday of the Valentine's Day weekend). Count the greatest number of individuals of each species that you see together at any one time. Enter the results in GBBC web page. There's forms and full instructions on the GBBC web site. Particularly interesting is a link to a regional bird checklist. This being Florida, our checklist is a humdinger! There's a photo contest and a participation certificate. This is a particularly kid-friendly event, and the web site has plenty of kid-related information.

If you participate, please let me know what you did and how you did, and send pictures (StillNature@cfl.rr.com) so I can share your experience with our other gentle readers. This should be fun!