Saturday was the coldest day of the year, so naturally I spent the day walking around counting birds with thousands of other folks around the country as part of the 2008 Audubon Christmas Bird Count. There were a few good moments, but mostly it was a day of freezing and walking in deep snow around parks, cemeteries and ponds looking at birds that I can see from my nice warm window at our backyard feeder. We did meet some very pleasant birders from around the area and it was nice to do something that is part of a long-standing citizen science and conservation project. If you don't know about the count, it's been going on since 1900 and replaced a Dick Cheney style bird blood-bath hunt. I suppose that every so often, mankind does evolve and progress ever so slightly.

 A beautiful moment looking at Mt. Olympus. There's a redtail hawk in the pine on the left (seriously, I spotted it just after snapping this shot).

 

 Me wandering through a cemetery and freezing hoping to spot something besides magpies and robins.