​Have you ever been a part of a worldwide event that made a difference to a cause you believe in? This is your chance! The Global Big Day will allow you to make a difference by sharing your backyard birds while at the same time someone is doing the exact same thing in Australia and someone else in Sweden.   Let me break the Big Day down for you so you can see how much fun and important it is being part of a worldwide effort to learn more about birds. 

​May 5, 2018  ……….. All day ………….24 hours or 10 minutes………...  You get the picture.  Mark it on your calendar.

​Most backyard enthusiast want to attract the greatest variety of birds to their outdoor space and one of the easiest ways to do that is by feeding the right seed. Some of these freeloaders will flock to a certain type of seed while others just have a quick look and move on. The seed that you put out, will depend on the time of year, the location in relation to your surrounding vegetation, the hardiness zone, the latitude and who you are looking to show up for dinner. There are several mixed blends of seeds as well as several levels of presentation. There are even special types of seed you want to avoid if you are looking to keep certain critters away. 

The Intro

I am going to go out on a limb and say that there have been three things that have transformed my love of birding since my grandfather gave me a field guide nearly 35 years ago. The first was my Zoology Prof from Santa Barbara and the introduction of the life list. The second was the camera my Mom bought me for Christmas some years after, and the third was finding and using the fantastic site www.eBird.org. The attributes this site offers, to even the backyard birder, are amazing. The best part is that it allows each and every person that uses the site to be a citizen scientist, hold a life list and research birds around the world, for FREE. Every piece of information that is entered into the site is used for a multitude of reports that give insight into the health of birds, the environment and the earth, all entered by regular people just like you and me.