Hi birders, Please consider the words of Paul Baicich, leading birder and conservationist, spoken during the Ohio Ornithological Society Bird Conservation Symposium this past weekend: "Count something and make it count." Invest purpose and satisfaction beyond enjoyment into your identification records by investing the moments needed to add them to easy to use databases. Contribute to citizen science. Step one: Find a Christmas Bird Count near you today: http://www.ohiobirds.org/calendar/winter_counts/overview.php Counts happen from December 14 to January 5, annually. Find the National site here:http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/ Call or Email the coordinator/compiler and offer to help. You have all the fun while the compiler does the data entry for you. Step two: Log into Ebird http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ and begin entering your own records, beginning with your feeder. It's very simple. Ebird can be your personal database while using your records in combination with many others to better understand abundance and distribution of your favorite birds, and the many new birds you learn to identify as you pursue your avocation. Step three: Consider participating in organized counts like The Great Backyard Bird Count http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ and Project Feederwatch http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/. Step four: Participate in the OHIO BREEDING BIRD ATLAS II for 2008 beginning very soon http://www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/. Keep your journal and your lists but make your time count for more than paper. Make your gallons of gas count for more than enjoyable scenery. Do any or all of these steps to help bring science to birding and birding to science. Your help is needed! Tom Bain The Glaciated Allegheny Plateau Chair, OOS Conservation Committee ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]