It is not here yet, but I wanted to give you a heads up. If you liked The Lost Ladybug Project, then you might like this as well…
The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up on February 13-16, 2009. This annual four-day event is a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. Its purpose is to create a comprehensive picture of where all kinds of birds are found during late winter and then compare that information with data collected from past years. Apparently, scientists can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Since the birds are always moving, no team of scientist could ever hope to document the movements of so many species over a four day period. So they ask the public for help on these dates every year.
Anyone can participate, it only takes 15 minutes and it is especially fun for children. Participants count birds, record and submit their information and can also submit photos for a yearly contest. Visit their website for more details on how to participate.
Photo Credit: This Northern Cardinal photo was the overall winner of the 2008 photo contest. It was taken by Judy Howle, MS.
About the Author
Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
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We love the GBBC!! We do it every year and have had some unusual birds even (one year was a red-headed woodpecker which had never otherwise ever gone to our feeders…they prefer the woods around us). I hope more people will participate from reading it here!
What a fun project for the kids. I bet they were excited to see the red-headed woodpecker! I had never heard of this project before, but we plan on participating this year.
I forgot to mention in the post that they have buttons on their site that you can post on your blog to help spread the word!