Great birding experience!
It was a most awaited and special day for me, since for last two years I was not able to participate in HSBC bird race but amazed to hear about it. This year in Feb09 I finally made it to HSBC bird race with a great team - Flamingos.
Mr. Sunjoy Monga declared just before a couple of days of actual event about the team I'll be a part of. For my surprise I was put in a (special) team which led by a young lad named Master Sooraj Bishnoi. I heard and read about him on internet as I came to know about my team lead. I have never met him or seen him earlier, and even other members are new to me. Though I spoken to his mom Mrs. Rama Bishnoi (most helpful & cooperative), I was having double mind about how much we are going to explore with this young kid leading us in the actual filed. So I kept it guessing till the day I met him and we started our adventure.
Flamingos -
- Master Sooraj Bishnoi
- Mrs. Sooraj's Grandma (very active member)
- Mr. Rajnikant Mirkar
- Master Chinmay Mirkar
- Mr. Jayesh T. (Pro. photographer)
- Mr. Girish Chonkar (myself)
Mr. Jayesh T, who was not actually a part of the registered flamingo team but joined us for birding and photography which is his passion and profession, was also a great help in the fields, thanks for his active participation and guidance.
We planned to meet early morning (in the dark) at Bandra (E) on the day; Thanks to Mrs. Rama that she already arranged their own vehicle for transport of the team. We already decided the root and places to visit for birding at the bird race event, and most of the places were the first time experience for me and I liked all of them after this experience. All the team members agreed on not too many places to visit or over stretched root just for sake of it, but we opt for enjoying the real bird watching and spreading the awareness in new comers like me, which is the real purpose of the Bird race. The root and places we visited are as given below.
- KBS (Karnala Bird sanctuary)
- Uran, J.N.P.T.
- Kharghar Hills
- Belapur
To all our surprise Sooraj started as his name suggests (Sooraj = Sun) shining as we started from KBS, and the age barrier in the various team member vanished. I learnt a lesson here, the age is not important at all but the actual experience what is count, so I started feeling being in a right team for this event.
The list of birds we have seen, heard and noticed as a team. (Though I remembered just a few of the wonderful ones we came across am giving them below in a list format. which I remember)
- Rufous woodpecker,
- Common kestrel,
- Shikra,
- leaf birds,
- Bulbul (white whiskered, red vented...)
- Green bee eaters,
- Shrikes,
- Pied avocet,
- Mallard (male, female),
- Drongo (ashy,
- White bellied, racket tailed),
- Indian roller,
- Sunbirds (purple rumped, purple sunbird,...)
- Common stonechat
- White rumped munia
- Oriental skylark...
and the list went on and on but couldn't hit a century.
A whole day of just being with birds and with other birders in the field, It was the most memorable day of my life. Now waiting and preparing for the next year bird race.
Click the link to see some of the selected pictures of the bird race day from Jayesh's picture gallery from Picasa.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayeshpt/Feb2009
for bird race info check this link
http://www.indiabirdraces.com/punebr.htm
Till then
enjoy birding
