Science Friday - A Celebration Of The 2023 Christmas Bird Count

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Every year birders across the world trek out into the rain, sun, sleet, or wind to participate in the Christmas Bird Count, organized by the National Audubon Society. The massive community science project, in its 124th year, tracks bird population fluctuations from year to year. This year’s count runs from December 14 to January 5.Ira and guest host Flora Lichtman are joined by Ariana Remmel, a birder and freelance journalist based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Dr. Anuj Ghimire, a birder and wildlife ecologist at North Dakota State University. They give a preview of this year’s Christmas Bird Count and take listener questions.  Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Are you in need of a little bird joy? We've got you covered. What I think is really exciting about birding is that going out and even looking for the common birds, you're keeping an eye out for just about anything. It's Thursday, December 14th, and today, like every day, is Science Friday. But it's also the first day of this year's Christmas bird count. I'm SciFri producer Shoshana Bucksbaum. For over a century, birders all over the country have been tallying their local bird

population and reporting their findings to the National Audubon Society. Ira Flato and Floralickman talked with two expert birders and took listener calls during our annual celebration of the Christmas bird count. Our next guests are here to give us a preview of what bird species they're looking forward to seeing during this year's Christmas bird count. Here with us, Ariana Rimmel, a birder and freelance journalist based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Dr. Anus Jumere, ornithologist, birder, and research specialist at North Dakota State University based in Fargo, North Dakota. Welcome both of you to Science Friday.

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me here. Nice to have you. And we want to hear from our audience. Are you planning to participate in the Christmas bird count or in any event? Tell us what birds you're seeing outside anything unusual. And I start off thinking of unusual guys, talking to my brother who lives on Long Island, who tells me he saw a hummingbird. Even when the temperature drop below freezing. Now, I have hummingbirds in my feeder sometimes, but never in like winter-like conditions. Is that unusual? That's what I want to find out today, Flora. That's my top question. Let's find out. And if you want to find out, our number is 844-724-8255-8-4-Sai Talk. And of course, you can tweet us at SciFri. So let's go right to the questions.

Ariana, what got you into birding in the first place? Well, it makes birds such a special creature to observe and document? Yeah, so I've always liked birds. I have early memories of being a little kid looking up at a morning dove sitting in a nest and just being absolutely fascinated. And I think that, you know, like so many people, I got into the birding the way that I do it now, which is very intensely keeping lists going out regularly because of the pandemic. It was a really accessible way to spend time in nature and build community with. other people who were really looking to learn a different element of what their home was like. And so birds are really nice to observe from that standpoint because they're pretty much everywhere.

And wherever people live, there are going to be birds that are around that are calling that home as well. What about you in News? What do you like about birding? I think just the thing about finding them or like basically most of the time it's not being able to find them. I think there's this challenge that you like about. There's a bird you want to see, and then you go after it, let's say, an owl or something, and you're not going to see it, but then it makes you want to find it more. So, like, I think there's something about that kind of what drives me. The hunt, I guess, yes.

Our number 844-724-8255, if you'd like to tell us what you like about birds, whether you have some in your backyard, what you've been seeing, what you haven't been seeing. Let me begin with my question. out of the way. And that is the question I mentioned in the intro. About do hummingbirds, are they able to survive in the freezing weather like that?

Anoush? So technically, one of the cool thing about hummingbirds is I've never worked with them, but I've read a lot because I know someone who's worked with hummingbirds before. Just like hibernation in other animals, they can do this thing called torpor.

So it's basically is when they are not actively feeding at nighttime, they can drop their temperature down and then just become really inactive. And I know that they can do that, but it's still like, I don't think they will be able to survive for a long time during really cold winter or weather. So like you mentioned, there was one hummingbird in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago, I think. So that is unusual for them to be around the northern reason. But it is unusual.

But I think, like, if it gets really cold, they might not be able to go through that. But they do have something called a torpor where in terms of inactivity, they can just be very inactive and then roost, I guess. Ari, what birds are you really excited to see this year? Yeah, well, if I, looking at, you know, eBird, which is this citizen science project that kind of also is one of the ways that we log birds. When I look at what is potentially expected for Pulaski County, where I live and where I will be doing one of my Christmas bird counts, hummingbirds actually are possible, though I am not expecting to see one. What I think is really exciting about birding is that going out and even looking for the common birds, you're keeping an eye out for just about anything.

So even though I don't expect to see a hummingbird, I'm going to keep my eyes out for one just in case we get one, because that would be important to document. Another one of those birds that I know, a bird that I actually know is around here is an American woodcock. these are birds that if you actually I encourage listeners to go Google this bird because you look at this bird and it's like I'm going to have to believe you that that's a bird

for people who are not Googling right now so surprise so this is like a little a little guy he's like a boarb in the colloquial terminology like a very round little guy and he's got this big long bill

and he used these birds use these bills in order to to forage and to look for food, they're primarily hanging out kind of in the leaf litter this time of year. And because of the proportions of this animal as a ground-dwelling bird, I mean, it's not anything like Blue Jay or a cardinal or a robin, which are some of the other common species that I'm expecting to see. And looking at the picture in the field guide, I have thought to myself, wow, I'm sure that if I were to walk by this bird, I would 1,000% see it. But The one time I actually did lay eyes on this bird when I got it for my life list, you know,

the list of bird species that many birders keep record of. It was, I was not more than 20 feet away from this bird, and I had to get five different people to help me figure, like, differentiate what part was bird and what part was the leaf litter and branches and snacks it was around. So it's one of those things that as you spend more time, outside in the field looking at birds. You start to get better at understanding how to see the ones that don't really want to be seen. Yeah.

Let's go to the phones because lots of people want to share what they're seeing. Let's go to Sheridan in San Antonio. Hi, welcome to Science Friday. Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. Go ahead. Yes. Well, we've had a really interesting development in Texas this winter.

My husband and I are hardcore, long-time birders. And there's been a big influx of Mexican birds into the Rio Grande Valley. We've had a gray-colored Baccarre, which is the first record to the state of Texas and only the thirds of the United States, a model dow, which is only the third record for Texas, and the first that people could actually see. a number of golden crown warblers, crimson-colored gross beaks, blue buntings. It has been phenomenal. And this is throwing a lot of people into the state to come and see these birds because they're not birds that can be seen anyplace else in the United States. Obviously, they can in Mexico.

So it's been a very exciting winter. Wow. A newser, Ari, any comments on this? So that's an interesting thing that she brought up the gray-colored burqar. I was there when it was seen and I got to add it to my life list. And like Siemens, and it's only been seen really few times in the U.S.

And I was very lucky to get that bird when I was birding down in Texas. So it was amazing. Yeah, I am very jealous by that second. I've seen... But do you have any ideas why the influx? I guess that's what our caller is asking why this influx suddenly of these birds?

I think that... So it's kind of like usually there is irons of birds in terms of like whenever they're migrating. So currently in the northern reason, there seems to be a really good influx of finches going on. And usually at times those kind of things kind of happen. I don't know if there's like a certain answer to that

in a way that like birds are behaving in this way or that. But I'm not sure if there is an like answer to that. But usually it does happen that birds from different area move into the different reasons. So for example, even this summer or late fall, there was a huge influx of American, North American birds that kind of went to the UK reason, which was really, like, weird for them. They got really, like, weird birds over there.

So usually birds try to, like, kind of, I have a friend who whenever I ask this kind of question says, because birds fly. So basically, they, like, go from places to places, and that's his answer. So I would say, like, because they fly. Because birds fly. It's good enough for me. But this is one of the reasons that it's so helpful to have participant scientists out in the world taking record of these birds, you know, through whatever means they have available to

them, eBird again, being one of the tools that a lot of us established birders use. But it's hard to really, you know, establish long-term trends to see what a specific event like this means in a broader context, unless we have the data to really study that. Let's go to Jennifer in Anchorage. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to Science Friday. Hi, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to show. share a really interesting spectacle that we're having in Anchorage this year. We have a resident white raven that has the Lucerne genetic variation in color, and it's just been kind of the talk of the town this year. And I just wanted to let people know there is this wonderful, interesting specimen happening up here.

You call it a white raven? It is. It's a white raven. It's not albino. It does have a little bit of pigmentation, so it's sort of a little bit grayish on the head and the nape of the neck. And it has beautiful blue eyes. Wow. So there are some amazing photographs online people can find.

There's some professionals making wonderful portraits of it. So it's pretty amazing to see. A news or Ariana? Is it amazing? That's definitely amazing. I am originally from Nepal and the university that I went to had a black, white crow. And it was also a lucistic one.

Like she said, it had like pinkish eye. And then it was just like, oh, black is pinkish eye. But it was not completely albino. It was a lucistic. And I basically spent two years looking at that when I was getting through my master's. And it was amazing to see it. Wow. Yeah.

And this lucistic quality happens in other species, too. I've never seen an all-white lucistic bird, but I've seen robins with patches of their feathers where instead of that beautiful kind of rust-colored breast, they'll have little bits of white in there. And crows and ravens as well, I found a caramel-colored crow. It was brown instead of black. So there's all sorts of variations that happen. And if you are out there looking for enough birds, there's a decent chance you'll find one. Thank you for that call, Jennifer. That was great.

Ari, you know, we've been talking about unusual birds. What do you think about the sort of birds that most people will see? The cardinal, the chickadee, you know, is there anything to love there? The duck. The duck. Oh, man, I'm, gosh, I'm a big fan of a duck. I always love a duck. Via duck is an old line from a movie, but.

Well, I think that, you know, common birds are what I would say most people associate with, you know, seeing birds. for the first time. Like the bird that got me into really starting to pay attention to this entire family of animals was a morning dove, which I've also seen in the garden center at Home Depot. You know, like, I think that there's a temptation to say like, oh, it's common and therefore not really worth observing. But, you know, I think back when I was a little kid here in Little Rock, I used to see fireflies, little lightning bugs that would light up my yard in the summer. And I just kind of assumed they were always going to be there. And it's been. it's been ages since I saw a lightning bug, you know.

And so I think even with the common birds, I'm excited to see a bird because, like, what a joy to live in a world where there's such a thing as a common bird. Let me just remind everybody that this is sorry to break in, have to pay the bills. This is Science Friday from WNYC Studios. And I so rudely interrupted Ariad Rammal. She's a guest, and we have, yeah, with Dr. Anouj Jemir talking about this season's Christmas bird count. Go ahead. Finish, please, Ariana, finish what you were saying. No, I mean, I just think that there's so much joy that can be had looking at common birds. Even if you, it's a bird that you think that you know really, really well.

You know, for example, a great blue heron. I've seen a lot of great blue herons. I saw one swimming recently. That's cool. The strangest thing. And I was like, do they, well, apparently they do do that. I just hadn't observed that behavior before, you know. Yeah.

Let's go to the phones. Lots of, let's see how many we can get in Lesoth in, in Muncie, Indiana. Hi, welcome. Hi, Lissette. Go ahead. Hi, hi. Hi, how are you? Yes, this is Lusat calling from Muncie, Indiana.

Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to tell y'all something fascinating. I learned about hummingbirds. I heard you just talking about it. And they migrate every year to Mexico, the ruby red-throated one. that we have like here in Indiana. They don't live here through the winter. And when they migrate back up here in the early spring, they remember exactly where their old feeders were. And this past spring, it was early spring. I was standing in my bathroom. And there was a hummingbird right

outside the window, just staring at me, you know, how they can hover like a helicopter. And I said, oh my gosh, I haven't put my feeder out yet. I went out to the garage, got the feeder. But then I got distracted with my children, put it on top of the fridge in my kitchen. Forgot about it. The next day, we came inside, and my husband said, when did you get a hummingbird ornament for the kitchen? And I said, I didn't get a hummingbird ornament for the kitchen. And the hummingbird was sitting on the inside window staring right at the feeder.

It was on top of the fridge. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry. And I immediately went and filled the feeder and put, and put, took them both outside. What a store. For the rest of the summer. Yeah, that hummingbird guarded it. They do. They fight.

You know, they'll have more than one hummingbird tried to feed and they'll guard it. It's just fascinating. And I also have chickens in my backyard. And I just want to give a shout out to the backyard chicken people because I just started that five years ago right before COVID. And I fell in, I didn't know I would fall in love with chicken so much. And they really are like, diamond. I feel like when I'm watching them sometimes, I'm watching dinosaurs. It's incredible.

Well, you are. That is a great story, Lizette. Thank you for sharing that with us. Maybe I should put my feeder inside the house and get better results because I'm always looking for herming birds. We have to take a break. And when we come back, we will continue taking your calls. 844-724-8255. Flora and I will be right back after the break.

Stay with us. This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Plato. If you're just joining us, we're talking about the upcoming Christmas bird count with my guests. Ariana Rimmel is a birder and freelance journalist based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Dr. Arnuj Jemire is an ornithologist, burder and research specialist at North Dakota State University, based in famous Fargo, North Carolina. And we're taking your calls. 844-24-8255. You can tweet us at Cy Friday. we have had some amazing experiences.

If you'd like to share yours, please do. 844-8255. Okay, Ira, are you ready to play a little game? I am, well, as ready as I'll ever be. Okay. Our producer Shoshana Bucksbaum has selected a mystery bird call for us to try to guess. Are you ready? Let's give it a try.

Okay. Oh, goodness. Shoshana said it was easy. That's why I won't get it. Okay. I would, I'm going to guess it's a blue jay. ding ding ding ding I don't know

we're going to have to go to our guests Ari what is it it sounds like an American Robin yes Shoshana says yes my second guest if you can believe that

Arii let's talk a little bit about the bird count you're going to be participating in Little Rock again this year you know for the uninitiated what makes this event special well

I am so this is going to to be my second year doing a Christmas bird count, and I'm doing two different events, one in Little Rock and one in a nearby city called Lowndoke. And actually, across the state of Arkansas, there are going to be 25 to 30 of them. And so what makes this great is that there's a huge community effort that goes into just going out, enjoying birds and kind of documenting what we're seeing. My particular group that I started with here in Little Rock, one of our members has been looking at this particular section for, almost 35 years. And it's so special to be able to be part of that kind of long-term memory of how this place, these various places, which are, you know, city parks, strip mall parking lots and whatnot have changed in the kinds of ways that they support local birds. Anus, what about you? You know, you're a bird researcher. Why do this? So one of the things that I really like about Christmas bird count is I learned about this when I moved

to US in 2017 and I've been doing it ever since. And one of the things that I'm really interested to know is like how different kind of human induced changes are affecting the birds. I'm really interested in like long-term ecological data. And then in a way, all the birders and the birding community are as a whole citizen science and then people in the community are helping scientists to realize like how are the birds changing? What used to be seen 30 years ago in large number?

Like are they going away right now or what's happening to them? So I think in general, this is a really good data that we can use to extrapolate into thinking about how our community is changing, how our birds are changing. And one of the interesting things about Christmas bird count, the U.S. National Survey, and also the eBird data was a few years ago, they released this data where about 3 billion birds are being like or gone from the U.S. in the last 50 years or so. So that data was possible because of all of these efforts. So I think it's really good in terms of data, as well as enjoying and appreciating the birds, I guess. Yes. Let's collect some data by going to the phones. Before we do, I have to, I can't believe I said that Fargo was in North Carolina.

I can't believe. I can't believe I said that, but it's not in case you're on North Dakota. I'm watching the show this week. Okay, let's go to Kasha in Wenatchi, Washington. Did I get that right? You did. I didn't hear all of what you said when the phone clicked me on, but we are three generations of birders now who do the Christmas count every year. And my in-laws got my husband and I, and then also my daughter, into birding, and she's a senior in high school now, but we've

been doing it for here the last handful of years, and we're seeing different trends. And it's just such a special time, too, with that intergenerational thing. We pack hot chocolate. And, you know, it's really cool to be like, oh, last year, that's where we saw the Golden Eagle and to, you know, have that memory that we're making together. And if I just can share a couple of things with getting kids into it, and part of it, one thing that's been really helpful is that Merlin, Bird ID, the free one to listen to the different sounds. So if we're not sure with the bird, we can pop our phone out the window and hear the sounds and that helps us idea it. And, you know, with the holidays coming, a pair of good kid starter binoculars or, you know, a digital camera, like if you have a digital camera

sitting around, that was super helpful when our daughter was young, we'd have the, with the zoom on it, the old ones. And you can zoom in and take a picture even beyond what you can get with your binoculars. So it's been super special to share it as a family. And then also to feel like you're doing something and contributing and pass those values along. So we love the Christmas bird count, and we do raptor counts and other counts through Audubon as well. So love it, and I'm glad you're doing a program on it. Well, thank you for sharing. Let's collect some more data. Let's go to Kevin in Madison, Wisconsin. Hi, Kevin. Hi, hi there. I've been trying to put more and more bird feeders out. My sister sort of got me started for two to three years. So I keep adding

more and changing things as I listen to the various shows and give me advice. But for the last few months after I put out the bird feeders, I've noticed that there's been a great reduction in birds. And then yesterday, when I was working in my office, I had a bird fly into my window, and then I saw the Cooper Hawk come by and pick it off after it hit the window. And I've realized I've been treating a different type of bird recently. So I was wondering if there's a certain type of, yeah, the Cooper and the Red Tail have sort have nested around our house and they're picking them off as they come to the feeders.

But I was wondering if there's a certain time like the cloudy days or the gray days that the hawks are more likely to be prey versus sunny days or anything like that. But I've noticed that this has been a recurring event where the birds are being picked off. So it is a change, but I guess it's part of nature. So that's sort of my situation here. So thank you for your call. And thank you for the session. Thank you.

Birds being picked off is that's a common thing. Is it not, Anish? So I can kind of pick up on that. So I have been doing a lot of window surveys as well, basically during my recent season. They strike the windows. And nowadays, we have windows everywhere. And at NDSU, too. So every migration season, I walk the whole university in the morning trying to collect the birds.

But I can't get to everything. And we have a few other people who collect it, too. but one time I was looking for birds and I saw a few birds like trying to fly away as the students were walking and one of them hit the window and it fell down and I was running towards it but before me a crow got to it so it was just like on top of the building and as soon as the bird hit it the crow went up and picked him up and flew away so yeah I think there might be a I've only seen it once but they might know that these are some things that are happening and they just wait for someone to hit the window and pick it up and leave. They're pretty smart those crows. Yeah, exactly. I didn't think of them as birds of prey, though. Oh, for birds of prey, I'm not entirely certain if they, I've seen them pick any dead birds.

They do. They pick on the street. They take birds dead, roadkill. Croes will eat any, yeah, I've seen crows around roadkill, around trash cans. I mean, they are very adaptive in the kinds of foods they're able to eat. But to the comment about the weather, I don't know that. I certainly don't know if there's specific weather that's better for raptors to hunt. But I know that for a lot of birders, we look for overcast days to go watch raptors

because the cloud layer kind of pushes them down a little bit closer to our level. And the backlighting is easier to spot them in binoculars. So I think that they are sometimes more noticeable to us on those days. Let's move around the country. And this time go to Angus in Florida. Hi, welcome to Science Friday. Hello, how are you? Hey there.

Yes, I'm always on the lookout for, well, three different birds. One is the red-winged blackbird that has sort of disappeared from the marshes and the small lakes in this area, and also painted buntings. They're here as well. I haven't seen one at my bird feeder, but I'm very jealous of a friend of mine that has a family of them that visits a... Bird feed are often. And this, yeah, go ahead. Both eagles as well, they're around here, not too far from where I live in the land.

Yeah, so you hadn't seen these birds that you were looking for. And I'm looking at through the messages that are coming in. And thanks for that call. Well, let me ask my guess, are we seeing a decrease in birds in general? People are not seeing birds anymore that they used to. Yeah, as I mentioned before, like there has been data that suggests that overall there has been declining bird population over the years. And usually when I'm out at the field site too, or like I work with house sparrows, but I've seen people around and usually they come up to me

and ask about like, what do you do? And I, when I tell them that I study birds, they usually go like, oh, when I was young, I used to see this many birds. And especially one thing that I got a lot from like people this time was the Western Meadow Lark. Someone told me that, they used to see a lot of middle larks up here when they were young, but then the population has gone down in recent years. And I think that's true for like different places too. And that data that the Cornell Lab published a few years ago, so it trained for a lot of the birds.

And as he mentioned, I think the Red Wing Blackbird was one of those that was hit hard with that. But definitely there seems to be a trend of declining birds. And one of the factors also is, like I mentioned, the window strike, outdoor cat, farm cat, those are one of the reasons that the bird population are declining to in recent years. Besides keeping my cat inside, what else can I do to help birds? I would say feeders as well.

Featers are a good place to, especially like where we live up here during winter, it gets really cold, and they're like trying hard to find those foods. And like if people can put more feeders in, they'll at least get some food or like get some shelter and stuff. So maybe like try to put more boxes in, try to put food in. And during summer when it gets really hot, try to put some like water bath and so on to help them. There has been talk, though, from people who say that there are bird diseases that get spread at the feeders. Is that true? That is true.

And I think that happened two years ago in the West Coast around Washington or something. I'm not entirely sure like what kind of disease it was, but there were like, U.S. Fish and Wildlife was telling people not to put the feeders up or something because there were like some kind of diseases. Maybe Ariana knows more about this, but I'm not entirely sure. So I actually, one of these years here in Little Rock, we had an outbreak of salmonellosis. It was salmonella that was being spread through birds at bird feeders. And this was kind of a perfect storm that was leading this to be a problem because, number one, it was a year where pine siskins, which are a kind of finch, that their migration is a little bit more, it's called eruptive migration.

They're more nomadic. So there were just a ton of them here that particular year. They can't really social distance the way that humans have learned to do. And so when they're all crowding around a limited food source, the transmission of disease can be much higher. I ended up having to take my feeders down for a few weeks to get the birds to disperse. But one thing that I think people don't fully recognize is that you need to be cleaning your feeders pretty regularly.

I mean, these birds are putting their feats on the, on the perches and whatnot. There's a lot of, a lot of stuff going on. Every day, I mean. So with hummingbird feeders, I would be changing out the liquid at least every day. Wow. I tend to, I mean, yeah, think about that. You've got sugar water sitting out in the warm elements. It can get pretty gross pretty quickly.

I try. And I try to wash my bird feeders. at least once every two weeks. Take all the bird seat out, wash them down. And you don't need to do, it's not a thing that you need disinfectant. Soap and water does pretty well, but they do get messy. All right. This is Science Friday from WNYC Studios.

Talking about birds, bird feeders. Let's go to the phones. Lots of folks want to talk. Let's go to Bob and Houston. Hi, Bob. Hi there. How are you? Hi there.

Go ahead. I am fortunate enough to have access to a large ranch on the south. Texas coast and routinely on our property, we are seeing three to eight whooping cranes. And what's unusual this year is a juvenile. That's about 60 percent of the adult height and kind of modeled rust color over much of its chest and wings. And that's unusual, you say. To see the juvenile it is. I understand the juvenile is one of about 90 in the world. And so we're incredibly fortunate to be seeing six, eight, or ten of the world's 600 whooping cranes in one of our pastures every day. Arianna, how lucky is he? I mean, whooping cranes are such a cool species and one of these

kind of large charismatic birds that is threatened, right, from habitat loss and climate change and many other factors. And I think anytime you get to see one, it is very cool, especially because their populations are really threatened. Wow. You know, I wonder, Ari, you mentioned that you're into ducks. Yes. What's with the duck obsession? Okay. So, I mean, it's a lot of different things.

First of all, just like on a base level, it's an all-terrain bird. That's a bird that can fly. It can swim. It can walk awkwardly, but, you know, still. And I just, you know, I think that in terms of the anatomy of, like, how these animals evolved, I just find it fascinating. I'm also just a sucker for a good wetland. I love being out in these kinds of riparian environments, and that's where the ducks are too.

So I feel like, you know, we got some things in common. Geese also, a fan? Or not so much? You know, I actually do like geese. I think they're a very misunderstood creature in general. I mean, we should, I encourage anyone. Sorry. Oh, controversial bird takes, being nice to the geese.

But, yeah, I mean, I think that these animals have, have evolved to fill their particular niche. And when we get to see them, I mean, that's them living their best lives. There you go. There you have. And we've been living our best lives with our guests. Hope, thank you all on the phones for such great questions. I want to thank my guests. Arianna Rimmel is a birder and a freelance journalist based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. Dr. Anuzeh, Jemere, is an arnithologist, Birder and Research Specialist at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. Thank you for taking down to be with us today.

Thank you so much for having me. Will you be participating in your local Christmas bird count? This is my first year doing it, and I'm really excited. We want to hear how it went for all of you. Send us a voice memo to SciFri at ScienceFri.com or as a direct message on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. We'll feature some of them in the coming weeks. Tomorrow, we'll talk about the latest research.

seasonal depression. I'm Shoshana Bucksbaum. See you soon.