When we think about the kinds of people making important contributions to science, we might imagine someone in a white lab coat, squinting into a microscope, or pouring over reams of computer data. Truth is, good science can also be accomplished by everyday people-- citizen scientists-- volunteering in both large and small collaborations. National Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, is a great example of one such collaboration. It started on Christmas Day back in 1900, by a n ornithologist named Frank Chapman . He proposed that rather than competing with each other to see who could shoot the most birds on Christmas Day -- a common practice in the late 1800s -- that people instead take a census of their local bird populations. Keene, New Hampshire was one of the places where counts took place that first year. Across the country, 27 people in 25 locations counted a total of 18,500 birds. Since then, it’s grown quite a bit. Last year, there were well over 25 hundred Christmas Bird Counts (or