​One weekend in February changed the way I saw birding, and I owe, in part, my full commitment to birding to The Great Backyard Bird Count. Bold statement? Maybe, but in 2006 I saw a link to a website that appealed to my inner birder. The website said I would be helping out by keeping track of the birds that I saw over four days during a weekend in February and best yet, I would get to call myself a citizen scientist! It felt like I was back in university, fighting the good fight and at the same time, take my birding to a whole new level.  This all led to the world of eBird, but that is for another story. I hope this article will spark a little something in your inner citizen scientist and you join me with over a 140,000 other folks on the four day event held February 12-15.

​We can talk to someone half way around the world while watching a live image of them. A doctor can let you know what ails your internal organs by taking a 3 dimensional image without so much as making a nic in your skin. And now, there is a program that can tell you what North American bird you are looking at with a couple clicks of the mouse! Have you ever seen a bird and thought, “I wish I knew what kind of bird that is?” I know I get at least one call or email a week asking me “what bird is this.” Well, technology has caught up with that need. The Cornell Lab has come up with a new and fancy identification program called Merlin Photo ID, that lets you upload a picture and with a couple clicks of your mouse, will tell you which bird you are looking at. If that isn’t as good as a CAT scan machine, I don’t know what is.