Recently, a small group of birdwatchers spent three weeks around Mount Vernon, the home of the first president of the United States, George Washington. They were busy counting wild birds on Mount Vernon’s wetlands, south of Washington, D.C. They began in the middle of December and work until the beginning of January. The birdwatchers were among 70,000 volunteers who collected information for the National Audubon Society, a U.S. conservation group. They counted birds in more than 2,400 areas in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean Sea and other parts of the Americas. The Audubon Society’s first “Christmas Bird Count” took place 115 years ago in 1900. At that time, a man named Frank Chapman suggested a new Christmas tradition -- that people count birds instead of shooting them around the holiday. American Stuart Davis is a long-time birdwatcher and has even traveled to other countries in search of birds. He was excited about the birds he saw at Mount Vernon.