Yesterday, I participated in the Littleton Christmas Bird Count, which first began in 1959. It went through a few pauses over the 60+ years, and was recently reinvigorated this year. I met up with Leslie and Sue at The Rocks Estate and we hiked the trails in search of birds on a snowy morning.

We were happy for the snow, the best alternative for the rainy days that we’ve been having. Nearly all the snow was gone before Christmas this year.

At lunch, Sue departed while Leslie and I had lunch and picked up Alden for our second leg of the day. We headed to downtown Bethlehem for some more birding. And yes, we totally looked the part, walking down the street with our binoculars and pointing up at crows. Route 302 was busy and noisy as usual with traffic so we headed off toward the ballfields and solar panels in hopes of counting a few more birds.

Back up on Main Street, we counted a few more crows as we dodged the crowds heading into Reklis. We poked into WREN to check out the gifts and art before calling it a day. We ran into another birder just as we were leaving and we shared our birder stories of the day. #BirdNerds 🙂

Back at home, I took another short walk through my woods in hopes of finding the turkey flock that was around a couple of days ago. I didn’t find them, but I got a couple more birds for the list we hadn’t counted earlier. My totals: 11 species, 88 individuals.

To learn more about the Christmas Bird Count and to learn how you can participate (anyone can do it- and almost every birder I know loves to include a newby), check out the info from the National Audubon Society: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count