Some of my fondest birding memories come from early days spent Christmas Bird Counting around my hometown of Calgary, Alberta. Those early Christmas Bird Count (CBC) experiences continued later as I moved around British Columbia and Ontario. In fact, the CBC is such an infectious tradition, that it’s part of the reason I got into birds in the first place. Sure, CBCs are fun, but they are also a valuable tool. Counts conducted by Citizen Scientists contribute to a 120-year-old data set, and results are used to monitor trends in population sizes of birds, which can indicate overall environmental health. The perennial devotion of thousands of CBC volunteers, who brave often unforgiving conditions, is truly inspirational, and is the reason I’m certain that birds and the natural world are important to Canadians.