The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all levels in counting birds and reporting their results to create a mid-winter snapshot of the numbers, kinds, and distribution of birds across the continent. Participants count birds for as little or as long as they wish during the four-day period and tally the highest number of birds of each species that they see at any one time. At the Great Backyard Bird Count web site, they fill out an online checklist to submit their counts.
It is a national census of winter birds. Volunteers take time to count how many birds of various species they see and send that information, either online or on paper, to a central collection point. Citizen science like this is particularly important in tracking migratory birding. River Tyde has also written on this topic.
Not certain of your birds? Cornell's Lab of Ornithology has an online bird guide. Or, for more localized information, check out this collection of bird photographs taken on the Rutgers Camden campus.
So, while you're keeping warm (or out taking a walk), keep an eye out for the birds. I saw a turkey vulture in one of my neighbor's yards one day and I swear there was a hawk swooping around the trees this morning. A few Mondays ago a whole flock of robins set up shop in the front yard for 30 minutes or so. It is amazing the variety of birds we have in this area.
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Hi Julie, for folks who want to learn more about birding in the Delaware Valley, DVOC has meetings every two weeks most of the year at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Especially useful is their Birding the Delaware Valley Region web page.
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