Kerala Bird Monitoring Workshop June 2016

An Atlas of the Birds of Alappuzha

For the third year on the run, a one day workshop on Bird Monitoring in Kerala was held at Centre for Wildlife Studies, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur on 14 June 2016 . More 100 birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts, representing various organisations in India participated in the workshop. Participants from Kerala represented Cochin Natural History Society (CNHS), Malabar Natural History Society (MNHS), World Wide Fund for Nature – Kerala (WWF), Bird Count India, Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), KeralaBirder, Birdwatchers of Kerala, Hume’s Centre for Ecology & Wildlife Biology, Travancore Natural History Society (TNHS), Rice Research Centre, College of Forestry etc.

An Atlas of the Birds of Thrissur

This year, delegates from fifteen other states in India joined us as observers under a larger umbrella of Bird Count India titled ‘National Conference of Bird Monitoring through Citizen Science’, of which the Kerala Bird Monitoring Workshop was a part.

The workshop marked the release function of two books – An Atlas of the Birds of Alappuzha and An Atlas of the Birds of Thrissur by Honorable Minister for Agriculture Adv. V.S. Sunil Kumar and the function was presided over by PCCF (HoFF) Dr. B.S. Corrie.

Alappuzha Bird Atlas Pages

Thrissur Bird Atlas Pages

Agenda

09:00-09:30	Introductions, Agenda Review, Review of 2015 Minutes
09:30-10:00	Kerala Bird Atlas: Recap and Results Overview
10:00-10:30	Alappuzha Bird Atlas: Results, Learnings & Concerns
10:30-10:45	Break
10:45-11:15	Thrissur Bird Atlas: Results, Learnings & Concerns
11:15-12:00	eBird Outreach – Recruitment, Stickiness, Hand-holding & Concerns
12:00-14:15	Book Release & Lunch
14:15-15:10	Kerala Bird Atlas: Proto-atlas experience, non-forests & plan for 2016-17
15:30-15:45	CBMP & OBC: Results, Scope & Future
15:45-16:00	Break
16:00-16.25	Heronry Count: Results, Concerns & Future Plans
16:25-16:45	Pelagic Survey: Concerns & Future Plans
16.45-16:55	AWC: Results & Concerns

Key Decisions

Bird Atlas surveys for the non-forests in six districts in 2016-17.
Bird Atlas surveys to be completed in forests in Thrissur district in 2016-17
Kerala Bird Atlas Protocol approved for non-forests with minor changes.
Pursue birding outreach through regular training and eBird outreach through focussed social networking media.
Much greater involvement from KFD in forest surveys to be sought.
Improve penetration in other districts to onboard them on to atlas in 2017-20.
Continue mass events like CBMP & OBC – involve more coordinated walks than random birding events.
Continue heronry monitoring in all districts based on availability of key coordinators.
Pelagic surveys during the two migration season (fall & spring) from every district.