By
Shreya Sikder
A first year English Hons Student, Shreya is an avid nature lover and enthusiastic photographer. Though she is still learning the technical aspects of photography , specially with high end equipments, but the inborn aesthetic sense helps her in producing some great frame. Here she shares her first BBD experience.
The Big Bird Day (BBD)
is a voluntary initiative of the thriving Delhi Bird Club. The first BBD was
held in 2003 and since then it has been held every year in January or February
including a bird observation in which teams and several individual birders farm
out to pre-determined areas to try and sight as many species of birds as they
can between dawn and dusk. Each state has a chief co-ordinator who collect the
results from various individuals/teams, the results are vetted and formalized
and the verified consolidated list of the birds are sent to central committee
which collates and tabulates the figures and announces the BBD results. Almost
every state and union territory is represented by huge number of individuals,
while West Bengal fielded the largest number of teams in 2013.
I was introduced to the world of
bird photography not more than a year ago and to me it was a mere hobby or
passion whatever I say. At that time I had no idea of what this Big Bird Day is
all about until last year I saw some really beautiful pictures of the
observation and after I got to know about this expedition, the whole thing
became much clear to me. But truly speaking, I never considered the thought of
taking part in this initiative as I did not have a standard equipment to take
pictures of the birds and to join the great birders was like a day-dream to me.
So when I was given the golden opportunity by Mr. Sumit Chakraborty to take
part in the Bengal Bird Day observation 2014, it was like a dream come true.
It was the winter morning on Sunday,
19th January. Unlike the other days I woke up early with the
excitement and at about 6:30am reached the spot where our team was to be
gathered before the observation. Our team at Halishahar in the district of North
24 Parganas consisted seven bird enthusiasts from various walks of life –
teachers, doctor, engineer, neurophysiology technician and of course me, a
student.But inspite of having differences in age and professions there are lots of commons among us.In addition to a zeal for nature photography we all are member of a Facebook group Wildwights which has broken the barrier of virtual relationship and brought several like minded people into the world of serious nature photography.For birders, the Sunday morning was already paying rich dividends ;
the weather less chilly, less foggy unlike other days. On four bikes, seven of
us kicked off for our first destination. Instead of lazing on couch or waking
up late in the Sunday mornings, it felt refreshing and soothing being in the
embrace of nature, breathing the early morning intoxicating breeze and treading
on the dew-soaked grass –being a “nature person”.
Armed with cameras, copies and
spotting scopes, our group members –Mr. Sumit Chakraborty, Mr. Prasun Kumar
Chakraborty, Mr. Guruprasanna Mitra, Mr. Tapash Kumar Dutta, Dr. Riju
Bhattacharya and Mr. Rathindra Chanda including me had arrived at about 7am at
Railway Cutting, a large pond used for fishing. Common Myna, Pied Myna, Jungle Myna,
Spotted Dove, Red Whiskered Bulbul, Red Vented Bulbul, White throated
Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Common Crow were the common sighting as a treat to
our curious eyes. Surprisingly the most common House Sparrows were very less
seen. Observing closely we found around 30 bird species and after that we
headed towards our next destination.
Anglers Club, as locally known is
a large water body famous for fishing. According to last year’s checklist of
birds, there was a huge gathering, almost 7000 of Lesser Whistling Ducks, a
migratory bird species crowded in the single water body, even making it
difficult to spot water amidst of them. But this year, the number of species
alarmingly decreased to about 2000. Besides there were also Cormorants
sunbathing. A Jungle Crow and a Black Kite flew over and surprisingly a Purple
heron was sighted as well. The Cormorants and the Lesser Whistling Ducks were
so far from us that I found it almost impossible to get a clear noise-free
picture of them and so I casually asked Mr. Sumit to let me use his Canon 7D
and he agreed without hesitation! After a number of efforts when I was almost fade
up, I realized that I was pressing the wrong key for clicking. And soon after
realizing the stupidity I readily started to focus and click pictures, almost
forgetting that I was using someone else’s very very expensive camera! Here we
approached a local resident and he clicked our group photo. Well, it was
amazing to be clicked while holding the attractive camera.
Our Team at Anglers Club
Our next observation was at
Phoolpukur field area .There was hardly any path visible but our bikers knew no
bound and made their way in the muddy path with other members on the pillion.
Great number of Palm Swifts, Barn Swallows, Zitting Cisticolas, different
species of Munia, White Wagtails and Citrine Wagtails were fluttering here and
there. We walked ahead. On a large tree, Asian Open Bill Storks were
sunbathing. Mr. Guruprasanna Mitra had brought some food, after having some we
divided into sub groups and walked to different directions for birding.
Suddenly Mr. Sumit spotted something moving on the grass, he took his camera and
in no time lay down on the ground and started clicking. It is always great to
see someone so enthusiast, the birds he found there was a Paddy field Pipit
couple.
Paddyfield Pipit
After covering the field area, we
zoomed towards our last spot at Phoolpukur. It is a farm cum picnic spot headed
by Bablu Ghosh. The place is very calm and serene with only the chirping of
birds but the frequent turning up of the people for picnics, playing loud music
and polluting the area is very much alarming as the number and variety of birds
are rapidly decreasing. Pond Herons, Grey Herons, Black crowned Night Herons
were seen with their nests on the tall bushy trees. A large number of
Cormorants and Night Herons were flying over. One can get a couple of flight
shots of these birds if spends about half an hour there. We divided into sub
groups and after covering our respective areas of that spot, we met at a common
place. Mr. Prasun had found a long feather of a Night Heron and a beautiful
feather of Asian Koel (female) with brown and black striped patterns. I took
them as a souvenir of the Big Bird Day. A Rose Ringed Parakeet couple was
playing on a branch of tree and we all halted there to capture some beautiful
moments. Common chiffchaff, Blyth's reed warbler, clamorous reed warbler were
other important findings there.
Common Tailor Bird
Now it was the time to return. We
decided to take some rest for some time and head back. But a last finishing was
to be done; just as we were about to exit, tweeting of a Black throated Tailor
Bird and Purple Sunbird caught our attention. Our group members got some
splendid shots there as an adieu.
Purple Sunbird(Male)
But it was alarming to see that the
huge variety of birds are slowly and steadily decreasing in those places where
the chirping of birds penetrated the silence even the last year at this time.
The excess loss of greenery due to rapid urbanization and also the change in
environment has taken its toll. As a result Purple Heron, Common Chiffchaff,
Purple Swamphen, Tricolor Munia, Yellow footed Green Pigeon, Spotted Owlets
were some of the birds less seen this year and among the relatively rare birds
were Eurasian Wryneck, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Black
throated Tailor Bird etc.
Zitting cisticola
“One could not count the moons
that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her
walls” –going out for birding was never an option for me, I only knew that
there are many varieties of birds in my district but I had never seen so many
birds on a single day being in the lap of nature. This Big Bird Day was a
perfect treat for me –some lovely captures (with that wonderful camera of
course!), visiting some unknown places full of varieties of birds and the
company of these amazing birder friends made my day.
Taiga Flycatcher ( Female)
White
rumped munia
Plain Prinia
The Bird checklist is given :
1. Purple
heron
2. Common
Myna
3. Pied
Myna
4. Red
vented bulbul
5. Red
whiskered bulbul
6. House
crow
7. Palm
swift
8. Spotted
dove
9. Jungle
myna
10. Bronze
winged Jacana
11. Plain
prinia
12. Pond
heron
13. Brown
shrike
14. Common
Moorhen
15. Greater
Coucal
16. Common
Tailor Bird
17. White
breasted kingfisher
18. Red
Wattled lapwing
19. Common
Chiffchaff
20. Open
billed stork
21. Little
egret
22. Asian
koel
23. Little
cormorant
24. Great
cormorant
25. White
wagtail
26. Magpie
robin
27. White
breasted water hen
28. Cattle egret
29. Black
drongo
30. Purple
swamphen
31. Collared
dove
32. Black
crowned night heron
33. Stork
billed King fisher
34. Purple
sunbird
35. Bengal
bushlark
36. Paddy
field pipit
37. Zitting
cisticola
38. Green
bee eater
39. Indian
silverbill
40. Citrine
wagtail
41. Scaly
breasted munia
42. Tricolour
munia
43. White
rumped munia
44. Eurasian
wryneck
45. Great
egret
46. Long
tailed shrike
47. Baya
weaver
48. Common
kingfisher
49. Black
hooded oriole
50. Median
egret
51. Jungle
babbler
52. Clamorous
reed warbler
53. Greater
flameback woodpecker
54. Jungle
crow
55. Taiga
flycatcher
56. Lesser
whistling duck ( almost 2000 in a single waterbody)
57. Cotton
pigmy goose
58. House
sparrow ( utterly surprising only one sighting)
59. Pheasant
tailed jacana
60. Blue
throated barbet
61. Wire
tailed swallow
62. Common
hoopoe
63. Rufous
treepie
64. Purple
rumped sunbird
65. Black
kite
66. Little
egret
67. Rose
ringed parakeet
68. Grey
Wagtail
69. Yellow
footed green pigeon
70. Hack
cuckoo
71. Common
snipe
72. Blyth's
reed warbler
73. Black
throated tailor bird
74. Barn
Swallow
