On a mild but cloudy day in December, 75 birders braved gusty winds to count birds in the greater Burlington area for the 76th annual Winter Bird Count (known nationally as the Christmas Bird Count – the name change only applies locally, but follows several other Vermont counts in embracing a more inclusive moniker). Two teams also contributed to the count’s owling effort, and a team of 11 birders took on the behemoth task of counting the Burlington area crow roost. In addition to several record-high bird counts, this year we were excited to set a record for the number of volunteers! In total, volunteers documented 68 species and 15,042 individual birds!