Since 1998, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society have promoted the first online citizen science project to collect data on wild birds and to display the results in near real time.

For four days each year, February 12-15, participants spend at least 15 minutes per day watching and recording the birds they see. You can watch through a window to your yard, from your favorite secret birding place or some exotic spot where you always wanted to be (although in Covid-19 times, that is pretty much out). You can be by yourself or with family; but, again, Covid protocol prevails The data can be uploaded easily in a variety of methods.

This is a very valuable citizen science project. All information can be found via a search on the web for Audubon Great Backyard Bird Count.

Bird-watching is certainly a joy in which we should all partake more often. The data we collect and record provides scientists with long-term population trends and a better understanding of a species population before one of its annual migrations. PLEASE PARTICIPATE ...AND, feel free to post highlights of your Count on the NNAS list website: nnasnet@freelists.org