Florida's space coast is one of the birdiest places in the ABA area in the winter months,

and there's no better opportunity to experience it than the space coast, birding, and wildlife

festival back in 2024, from January 24th to the 28th. Keynotes from Sharon Stitler, Kevin Loughlin

and John Kreacher, and Kevin Carlson, there are field trips, photography workshops,

and more.

It will be a great time.

Early bird registration is open now through December 20th.

So sign up today at SCBWA.net.

Hello and welcome to the American Birding Podcast from the American Birding Association.

I am Nate Swick. It's Christmas bird count season, Mary CBC, to those who celebrate.

This weekend is the first of the period running through January 5th for this, the 124th year of the Christmas bird count. It's nice that the first one was in

1900. It makes it easy to keep track. There are few community science projects for any taxa

with that sort of longevity. While the data collecting aspect of the modern count is largely

subsumed by eBird, There's still scientific value in the

CBC in large part because of those old counts and our ability to determine changes in bird

populations and local habitat over the last century and a quarter. But I would argue that the real

value of the CBC, at least here in the 21st century, is largely that

to our community. I still fondly remember my first Christmas bird counts. They were important

milestones in my own history, my own story as a birder, being able to join up with an established

group of people and really work that segment of the count circle, birding in places you

probably wouldn't bird in your regular weekly outings. You feel like you're really contributing

something to the science and to your burning community. It's got to the point that, for me,

...