We were at a book signing at L.L. Bean in Freeport recently to shamelessly promote the purchase of our book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds” as the perfect holiday gift (yes, that is a not-so-subtle hint), when we met a wonderful couple from the Philadelphia area.

This couple had come up to Maine to look for winter birds, do some shopping, and most importantly, to participate in a Christmas Bird Count.

For the past few years, they had been driving out to Montauk Point on the far eastern tip of Long Island to be part of that Christmas Bird Count; but this year they had decided to travel even further and participate in the Portland CBC.

The Christmas Bird Count, as we have described before in this column, is a tradition started more than 100 years ago as a sort of peaceful protest against the practice of holiday bird hunts in which people would compete to see who could kill the most birds in a day of shooting.

Under the stewardship of the National Audubon Society, the Christmas Bird Count became a standardized survey of winter bird populations that has now amassed a tremendous long-term dataset that can be used to study changes in the distribution and abundance of birds. Despite the name, the count doesn’t take place on Christmas Day itself but in the two weeks before and after.

Along with being important for the data collected, the process of participating in a Christmas Bird Count can also be a wonderful and enriching social and community event. Each Christmas Bird Count area is divided into sections with a team assigned to each section.

Teams then also sometimes divide themselves up to cover smaller sections of the assigned area. Many Christmas Bird Counts have a get-together at the end of the day to compile the numbers and share stories of the day. One of our most memorable Christmas Bird Count experiences took place many years ago when we had the opportunity to participate in the New York City Christmas Bird Count.

We were part of team that covered Central Park and our subset had just one section of the Park. We searched for the Long-eared Owl near Belvedere Castle, combed through The Ramble for Fox Sparrows, and strolled across Sheep Meadow hoping for the Red-headed Woodpecker that was supposed to in residence there.

All the while we watched diligently for the red-tailed hawks that had become celebrities since the book “Red-tails in Love” had described their amazing comeback in and around Central Park.

At one point we were walking along one of the wide paved paths in Central Park when an impeccably dressed couple, he in a bright blue woolen coat and she in vibrant red, passed us in a power walk.

Closely behind them were two large men in black coats with the tell-tale wire leading from under the collar up to the ear that marked them as security of some sort. We looked again more closely at the man and woman ahead of us and realized that we had just been passed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, apparently out for his morning exercise walk!

To find out about Christmas Bird Counts wherever you are, check out the schedule at http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count