Hey all you birders…mark the date on your calendar: February 13-16, 2009.

I’ve had a lot of fun with The Great Backyard Bird Count.  In Mississippi, I competed from my backyard with my neighbor (she lived a few streets over) to see who, what, and how many were visiting our yards at the same time on each day.  Sometimes she’d win, sometimes I’d win.  We had all the colorful birds that stayed in the upper mid-South.  That was great fun.  Then, last year living here in Sarasota, I counted sea birds with a friend who lives beachfront on Lido Key each day and I also counted in my back yard here in the canal area of Siesta Key.  I had a mix of  sea birds, and migrants.  What a difference between the two habitats. 

Hope you join in and help count this year.   Go to www.http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ for info on The Great Backyard Bird Count.  Other birding info sites to check out include http://www.birds.cornell.edu/, and http://www.audubon.org/