A workshop on bird monitoring and documentation was conducted by Bird Count India in Indore on 22 January 2017. The workshop was organised by a local conservation group, The Nature Volunteers. Over 60 people attended the bird walk in the morning, while the workshop that followed saw 51 participants packing the hall to full capacity.
The bird walk at Sirpur Lake, a wetland situated within Indore city, was a wonderful start to the day. Sirpur Lake is an excellent birding location and it lived up to its reputation and both new and experienced birders saw plenty of birds. The lake offered excellent views of a number of waterbirds while also offering the participants a chance to get close looks at several arboreal birds and passerines that were abundant on the trees and bushes along the bund.
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- Participants at the Bird Monitoring and eBird Workshop in Indore
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- Birders before commencing the bird walk at Sirpur Lake
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- Birders and other participants at the workshop
The workshop, held at the Basketball Complex, was conducted by Ramit Singal. The participants hailed from various backgrounds and people of all age groups were present – from school kids, retired professionals, businessmen to photographers, doctors and even army cadets!
The workshop, which lasted 3 hours, included an introduction to birds and birding. The participants were also introduced to eBird and projects involving bird monitoring such as the Mysore and Kerala Bird Atlases. With the Great Backyard Bird Count just around the corner, many campuses and birders seemed excited to take part and contribute during the event. The session was very interactive and even the school kids pitched in with important questions regarding data quality and the review process as well as questions about the eBird mobile application.
Indore is situated favourably with a number of fantastic birding sites all around the city. With an emerging interest in birds and birding, it is a place that is sure to produce a number of birders in the coming years. We are very thankful to Mr Ajay Gadikar, Mr Bhalu Mondhe and The Nature Volunteers for organising the workshop.
If your organization or an organization in your area is interested in conducting such workshops, please write to us about it!
Header Image: Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis by Ritesh Khabia/ Macaulay Library
Thanks a lot the whole Bird Count India Team and specially Ramit for coming down to Indore and enrich us on the subject,
Here we are having a lot of enthusiastic birders mostly new to birding, we will try to put Indore as well as Madhya Pradesh on the birding map of India in a significant way in the coming days.
Thanks,
Ajay Gadikar
A much needed event for Indore. Most useful and beneficial for senior birders as well as the beginners. Many thanks for coming all the way and conducting it. Am sure that in the coming days the positive effects of this event will be visible.
It was a very informative and inspiring , also enhance our knowledge how to document the bird that we have seen. This types of workshop to be conducted on regular intervals.
Good initiative done by Ajay Gadikar for Indore.
I am entreasted in Bird Monitoring and eBird Workshop in our Jalgaon, Maharashtr , what to do for that. Workshoip Language ? our group is poor in english. please Answer
Rajendra Gadgil
Thank you for writing. Please let us know what language would be preferable. We can find suitable resource people!