It's on my calendar now

It is a lot of fun. Spread the info if you can. The more who participate the better!

and I'm looking forward to this year. The last couple of years have been brutal and I wasn't able to even think about our feathered friends.

n/t

I see three at once. Then they fly away, then 5 minutes late 2 are back in the yard. Do I count 3 or 5 cardinals?

This is from the web site in the faqs:

https://www.birdcount.org/learn/faqs/

"Please report the highest number of individuals seen at one time during your observation period, as well as any clearly different individuals. For example if you see a chickadee flying back and forth to your feeder multiple times but you never see more than one at a time, count just one chickadee. But if you see a male and female cardinal coming and going but not at the same time, you can count them as two birds because you know for sure that there are 2 individuals. And if you see a bird fly over your feeder – please count that too. We are looking for a conservative estimate of the highest number of individual birds you are seeing for the counting period. Submit a checklist for each counting session. You can count more than once in the same location or in more than one location—just submit a separate checklist for each watching period and/or location."

Hope this helps!