Nature Done Wright

Cardinals are always winter crowd-pleasers. Photo credit: Mike Bailey, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library 

This week's column is all about the Great Backyard Bird Count, the perfect event for armchair birders. Seems like an enjoyable way to deal with the winter blahs this weekend.

By Jim Wright

Special to The Record | USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY

   One of my favorite winter birding activities is the Great Backyard Bird Count, a global event that begins tomorrow and runs through Monday. Last year more than 550,00 people took part and saw a total of 7,538 species.

   Participating is simple. Watch the birds around you for as little as 15 minutes, Identify them, count them, and then submit your totals (the easiest way is through the eBird and Merlin apps, which will automatically submit your results)

   This is the 28th annual edition of this mid-February event, created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. It’s billed as the first online citizen-science project to record data on wild birds and display results in near real-time.

   To learn more about the GBBC, I interviewed the project’s leader, Becca Rodomsky-Bish of Cornell.

   What’s new this year?

   Merlin has some great new features for identifying and sharing birds. This year, people can simply go to the Merlin app, scroll through the “Explore Birds” feature and see birds they’re likely to see in their area in February. Then tap the picture and report “This is my bird,” confirm the location and they've participated. 

   Doing this just once counts as being a part of GBBC. If people want to spread the love of birds, they can easily share “their” birds with friends on social media through Merlin.

   Any surprises?

   There is always the potential of surprise when watching birds! New behaviors noticed, birds you've never seen and migrants arriving early are all possible GBBC surprises. We won't know until we are in it.

   What’s your advice for newbie GBBCers?

   Yes, explore the website. It has lots of great information and beautiful photos of people worldwide sharing in this event. Also, if people are new to identifying birds, Merlin is the ticket! 

   You don’t tell us how many birds there are, but you tell us that you saw X species on X day. This is considered an “incidental sighting,” and it’s valuable data. Once a newbie feels confident identifying birds, they can hop over and do an eBird checklist on either their phone or computer.

   Anything you’d like to add?

   After the GBBC this year, all residents in the United States and Canada will be invited to join a new project — Garden for Birds! I am a passionate gardener and habitat creator for our feathered friends. We'll help people walk through a step-by-step monthly guide to create more habitat in and around their homes and communities to better support birds. 

   Birdy 30 results: Two weeks ago, I announced a little contest to see who could see the most bird species in one 30-minute period: The winners: Ellen Rahl of Hillsdale and Andrea Robbins of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, who both saw 18 species. 

   The Bird Watcher column appears every other Thursday.  Email Jim at celeryfarm@gmail.com.