What is it and what should we do?!  Participate of course!  The GBBC is the Great Backyard Bird Count and is going to be held from February 13-16, 2009.  It is the 12th annual one to be held and is something to participate in for 4 reasons...

1.  It's fun!  Go outside and count birds for a minimum of 15 minutes a day each day during the 4 day period of the count and then tally your results.

2.  It's free!  Need I say more?

3.  It's an easy way to help birdies!  How does it help?  The data you collect will help to provide a real-time picture of what the bird population in your area is like.  By observing the birds and providing numbers of species, you are helping bird organizations to see what migratory changes may be occurring as well as invasions of non-native species and population changes in native species.  As an example of how this works, peach-faced lovebirds are most definitely not a native species in America yet due to data collected in 2008 it ws discovered that 174 individual peach-faced lovebirds were reported from 7 different communites in the greater Phoenix area!  How exciting for Woody!

4.  You could win a prize!  Please keep reading for details on how to be eligible to win a prize from birdiewordie.

Ok, so how does it work?  As previously mentioned, all that is required of you is to spend 15 minutes a day each day during the 4 day period from Feb. 13-16 counting birds.  Then you count the greatest number of individuals of each species you see together at any one time.  Sounds confusing but it's not that bad.  As an example, if I decide to observe the birds at my feeder I will most likely see 3 or 4 different species in a 15 minute period.  I may only see one cardinal at the feeder at that time but may see another one on the hill behind him.  I will mark that I saw 2 cardinals.  Then I may see 2 tufted titmice, then 1, then 4 all at once.  I will mark that I saw 4 tufted titmice since that is the greatest number of individuals together during the time.  This is to avoid recounting the same bird over and over again.  You can literally count them in your backyard, at your favorite park, at the beach, at your child's bus stop while you wait, etc.  Wherever you want!  You can even do more than one location if you want.  You will just need to fill out a tally sheet for each location you count at.  These sheets, along with much more information can be found at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html.

Who can participate?  Anyone!  It's another great way to get kids out of the house and interested in nature.  It's wise to familiarize yourself with the local bird population to ensure you know who you are seeing, but even if you can't work it out after consulting a bird guide, they have an option for you to mark that you are not reporting every bird you have seen.  This way it is understood that you saw more birds but were unable to make a positive id on them.

This will be my first time participating and I plan to post the results here.  Anyone who participates in the GBCC is welcome and encouraged to post their results too!  There will be prizes* for the first 3 people to post their results!  I look forward to seeing what the results are!

*Prizes will be an all-expense paid vacation to Fiji for one week to the first person who submits their results AND guesses the number between one and one hundred million billion trillion kajillion that I'm thinking of, or a subscription to Birds and Blooms magazine .  The second person to enter their results will receive a rustic mountain cabin bird feeder (with seeds in a baggie for easy shipping!) and the third person to enter their results will receive a lovely bird-themed gift for your garden, deck or backyard that can hold a small portion of bird seed or perhaps some water for the birds.  Pictures will be available soon!  All kindred spirits who submit results will receive a bookmark from birdiewordie.  To be eligible for these prizes, you must be a registered user, your results must be submitted between Feb.17th and March 1st, your results must also be submitted to The Great Backyard Bird Count website, because after all that is the whole point, and also must be honest!  No sneaky averaging out your results or just making them up!