Birding in Quebec
Credit: Garth Lenz

I thought I'd send a reminder to you all that the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count starts tomorrow (the 12th) and goes to the 15th. It's a great opportunity for local birders to contribute their sightings to a larger database where researchers and experts can better understand bird behavior and organize patterns. This can lead to better overall knowledge about bird populations and even where important conservation areas might lie. Overall it's a great way for individual birders to join a larger cause and contribute to better knowledge of birds and how we can protect them.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is put on by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada, with sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited. After uploading your sightings you can even stay on the site and see other counts pour in across the US and Canada. It's a great experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone able to participate!

You can go to the GBBC website here:
www.birdsource.org/gbbc/
Here's how to participate:
www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html

Here's a map of all the count submissions from 2009 just to give you a sense of how truly large this count is!