Hi, folks, I'm Nate Swick, your host of the American Birding Podcast, and I'm going to take a little time up top to talk to you about the American Birding Association's end-of-year appeal, which is running right now.

This is our biggest fundraising effort of the year, and a strong December sets us up for a great 2018, during which we can continue to provide this great free content to burders around North America and the world.

We are not professional fundraisers by any means.

We are burders just like you, but we love creating these resources for you all.

And even a small donation can really help us do that.

Maybe a dollar an episode, $2 an episode.

That's American or Canadian dollars.

You know, we're not picky.

Any of it helps.

You can go to www.w.w.com.org slash appeal 2017. That too is important. Don't forget it.

If you want to make me look really good, you can say that the podcast sent you. Thanks for a great year,

and thanks for your continued support. On with the episode. Hello and welcome

to another episode of the American Birding podcast from the American Birding Association.

I am your host Nate Swick, Merry Christmas Bird Count to those who are observing, you know,

the reason for the season.

This is the last episode of the here, and it's a little different due to the proximity to the big

holiday. What that means is that I am recording this well in advance of the time when the

episode is actually going out. You know, you get a little insight into the inner workings of the podcast

here. What that means for you is that I am skipping the rare bird alert this episode. I know I can

hear the wailing and the gnashing of teeth, but, you know, I typically record that last just

before the podcast is ready to go out.

So you all get the freshest rarebirds right from the rare bird tree.

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