Dear friends,
The sixth Kerala Bird Race will be held on 18th November 2012 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. Kerala Birder along with Yuhina Eco-Media and CNHS is organizing the Bird Race in Kochi, on 18th November 2012. Kerala Bird Race is a dawn to dusk event where teams of bird-watchers will spend the entire day birding in and around each city. There are no pre- determined routes - you can watch birds in multiple locations all within 100km radius of each of the site to see as many species as you can. The participants will try to record as many species of birds as possible; learn about the finer points of bird-watching from the experts & the experienced, and then later in the evening, all teams will meet at a suitable venue over dinner and an interactive tête-à-tête.
While there are strict rules, there is a fun element to this exercise,which will help stimulate enormous interest in bird-watching as a highly popular hobby. The event will give us a good idea of the nature of this region's birdlife and helped build up support for environment and nature conservation.
Of course, there is also the team spirit and participation that comes into focus here. To ensure that the results are as infallible and in principle as correct as possible, each city has two or three special adjudicators who analyze the results and announce the winners at a special programme held in the evening. The adjudicators are either highly experienced bird-watchers or much-respected senior naturalists or conservationists.
Each Team gets an opportunity to interact with the others and recount their day's experiences. All in all, it is a great end to a day well spent with and for the feather-folk, and for nature.
Last year, we had more than 350 bird-watchers on the field on a single day, many of them fresh into the hobby. A few of the teams came up with whooping tally of 140+ species on a single day. Birdwatchers from other states are encouraged to take it as a chance to do some great birding in Kerala. We regularly have participants from Kanyakumari district joining us at Thiruvananthapuram.
The Grand Plan
Play the race hard - try to see as many species as you can from dawn to dusk before assembling to your chosen site for the evening dinner.Play the race to enjoy and share – each of you can treat it as an opportunity to make one another person interested in birds and share the joy.
Birdwatchers across Kerala (& outside) shall participate in this event - choose a convenient city where you can assemble for the evening of Nov 18th and contact the right coordinator.
Sites could be outside the district or even state.
You are free to make your own team. Each team can be 3 or 4 members;but there should be one good birdwatcher with every team who can identify most of the species around the city. You should name your team with a bird's name - we had several interesting names last time like "Falcons", "Cuckoos", "Flycatchers" etc. Also, make sure you drop in your phone numbers with the coordinators.
If you are a beginner bird-watcher and is not able to find a team, you still can contact the coordinators and they will help you out for finding you a team with a good bird-watcher in it.
This event has many nature conservation organisations from Kerala in the lead - WWF-Kerala, Kottayam Nature Society, Cochin Natural History Society, Malabar Natural History Society, Nature Education Society,Thrissur,Kottayam Nature Society, and several others.
Vishnu
Whom to Contact (Site Coordinators):
Thiruvananthapuram:
A K Sivakumar (WWF-India)
Phone: 94473 86978
Email wwfklsoATgmail.com / asivakumarATwwfindia.net
Kochi:
Vishnupriyan Kartha (CNHS)
Phone: 94464 37410
Email: cochinnhsATyahoo.com
Kozhikode:
Sathyan Meppayur (MNHS)
Phone: 94472 04182
Email: satyanmpr@gmail.com
Whom to Contact (General)
P.O.Nameer
Phone: +91 94465 73106 (After 23rd Oct)
Email: nameerpo@gmail.com
Praveen J
Phone: +91 94480 39906
Email: paintedstork@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment