Great Backyard Bird Count, North America

Today is the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count.
Alabama has wonderful birds and this event is a great way to begin learning about them.
As their website says, "It's fun, it's free, it takes as little as 15 minutes--and it helps the birds."

I participate in Project Feederwatch, counting birds at my feeders two days a week November through April. I see a minimum of 20 different species of birds! My relatives in Colorado are very jealous. (When I was a stay-at-home mom and needed an ego boost to compete with the supermoms, I would say I did volunteer work for Cornell.)

The GBBC is a great family activity. My children participated to earn scout badges--and still recognize most of the birds they learned about. I like to participate because I can count anywhere, not just my designated Feederwatch area. One year, my daughter and I were in Gadsden for All-State Orchestra during GBBC. I had a good time trying to identify and count the waterfowl there.