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Hello and welcome to another episode of the American Birding podcast from the American

Birding Association.

I am your host, Nate Swick.

I was trying to think of things that happened in the last couple weeks since the last episode came out to talk about here.

And there's, I admit, there's not a lot, we're sort of an doldrum period so far as birds are concerned. Migration is,

what migration there is is pretty slow. The biggest part of it is still months away.

Birds have started singing, but it's clear that none of them really mean it. And I could tell

that that Wren outside my window is just bored. The only thing that

came to mind was that annual event that he enables our most enduring passion in many of us

and sort of deep-seated frustration and regret in others. It is, of course, the Great Backyard Bird

Count. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a kid, of course. the Great Backyard Bird Count.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a pretty phenomenal citizen science undertaking.

It encourages tons of people who otherwise might not be in our birding circles to get

involved, and that is an objectively wonderful thing.

It gives people a reason to go out

and bird for a purpose, you know, beyond what usually drives you to head out into the field and look

for birds. And I say as a birder who really enjoys it when people find unusual birds in my state,

...