The thread on CBC's has been interesting to me in that it hasn't
mentioned another long-term national bird project with thousands of
participants -- Project Feederwatch, run by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology (recently with some collaboration by National Audubon).
CLO seems to do a better job of public relations than NAS, e.g. it
labels its participation fee as defraying the cost of providing
supplies and other material, so there seem be be fewer complaints about
it. CLO also does a far better job of providing feedback, including a
regular newletter; some insights are regularly uploaded to the www.

Anyone unfamiliar with Project Feederwatch might like to check it out on

http://birdsource.cornell.edu/features/pfw/

I've heard rumors that CLO may become involved in or even take over
the CBC's; if so, IMHO it will do a better job than NAS has, for it has
a
good track record of encouraging and motivating its participants.
---------------------------------------------------------------
P W (Bill) Smith
Grays Harbor, Washington USA
pwsmith at techline.com