"Birdwitching" is a urban fantasy short story by Harry Turtledove written specifically for the short story collection Witch Way to the Mall edited by Esther Friesner and published by Baen in 2009. The story has been collected in We Install and Other Stories by Open Road Media. It can also be read on Baen's website. It takes place in a world much like our own except that magic works and a large proportion of the population are witches who are able to control it. Lucy Parker was such a witch and also a birder. Every Yule Day, Sunset Grove, California the small town she lived in, had a friendly competition with its neighbor of Fernwood to see whose residents could spot the most types of birds that day. Friendly, but with witches involved, intense.
