Subject: Great Backyard Bird Count Hey, Don't forget! The 2nd Annual Great Backyard Bird Count will be taking place February 19-22. A joint project of the Cornell Lab or Ornithology and National Audubon (with sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited and Ford), the GBBC is asking everyone in North America to count the birds they see at their feeders, parks, and other areas. You then log onto the BirdSource web site at <http://birdsource.cornell.edu> and report your sightings. Lots of other great info their, too, including last year's findings from every state state and province. Reports will be mapped at the web site within hours of your sending them to us. This data will be used to make year-by-year comparisons of bird distributions and population fluctuations. Combined with data from Project FeederWatch, Christmas Bird Counts, Breeding Bird Survey and other studies, BirdSource is already proving very useful, thanks to all of you who participate in our projects. If any of you are reporters (or have such connections), I can email you our press release upon request. Also, if you wouldn't mind 15 minutes of fame, I'm looking for birders across the continent who are participating and wouldn't mind being contacted by the press for interviews. I'd need your name, town and state, phone number, and proximity to nearest large city. Please count for the birds -- for fun and conservation. Join us for the Great Backyard Bird Count! (Please forward this note to any appropriate listservs, etc.) Allison Wells Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd. Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 254-2475 amw25@cornell.edu