Greetings, birders-

If you haven't already heard, the 7th annual Great Backyard Bird Count will
run from Feb. 13 through 16 this year. That means it starts this Friday!

The GBBC is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon, with
sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited stores. Just count birds on any or
all of the count days and report you numbers on the Internet at
<http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc>www.birdsource.org/gbbc. There are maps and
tables that are updated almost instantly, so you can see how your
observations contribute to the continent wide perspective. There's
information at the web site for teachers and educators, and for birders of
all skill levels. This year, there are several new features, one to help
people learn how to create habitat out of their yards, and another to
encourage families to make birding part of their everyday life.

We appreciate any help you can provide to get the word out about the count
(please forward this blurb to any listservs for which it would be
appropriate - I'd appreciate a cc on that). We hope you'll all participate.
It's fun, easy, and helps build our database of continent wide bird
distribution and abundance.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Marge Villanova

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
Tel: 607-254-2473 or 1-800-843-2473
Fax: 607-254-2415