Great Backyard Bird Count 2018––Stories from the Field

GBBC and CBC 2018 in Jammu & Kashmir

As expected and planned, the Campus Bird Count as well as the Great Backyard Bird Count was carried out across the state of Jammu and Kashmir by local bird lovers, students, scholars, professors, scientists etc. For the CBC, 6 campuses were registered from Jammu province compared to 2 that were taken up the previous year. The new additions for this year included the Govt. Degree College – Samba, GDC Kalakote, IIIM Campus – Jammu, and the Central University of Jammu. Apart from these, the University of Jammu and Forests Guards Training School – Doomi registered this year as well.

Various events took place with participation from all the corners and people from several backgrounds. The members of our birding group (J&K Birdlife ) travelled to almost all the major hotspots of the province to get a snapshot of the bird species present at the locations. It was because of the efforts of the younger birders in the region that we were able to add 4 new campuses this year.

The major contributors for the CBC were Abhilash Sharma, Mohd Ayoub, Pavneet Kour, Stanzin Namgail, Sachin Kumar Vikas Dogra, Reyaz Andrabi, Megha Latwal, and Rahil Dutta. For the GBBC, my dear birding friends Parmil Kumar, Neeraj Sharma and others provided the extra support and organised a birding tour for the students around a Wetland area named ‘Gharana’. It was great to have Garima Bhatia with us, whose presence made it even more exciting.