The avocational engagement of interested individuals in scientific observation and research is not new. Amateur ornithologists monitored the timing of bird migration in 18th century Finland; in Victorian England, citizen astronomers participated in the British government's Transit of Venus project to accurately measure the distance from the Earth to the sun (Dickinson and others, 2010). In the United States, the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count (CBC) began in 1900 and has yielded long records of North American bird distribution; USGS volunteers have monitored the CBC "Brooke Circle" in Virginia continuously since 1947.