Dear Members and Fellow Birders, The Big Birding Day (BBD) 2014 is scheduled to be held on 16th Feb 2014. Like last year this will be a national event and I have been asked by the National Committee to coordinate the Upper Assam Districts (starting from Jorhat upwards). Mr. Raj Kamal Phukan will coordinate Lowar Assam (Starting from Golaghat downwards). A few of us participated last year and very successfully. The process remains the same i.e. groups of birders with a team leader birds for the whole day in a pre-selected area and submits the findings to the regional coordinator who in turn submits it to the national committee. I would request birders in the districts of Jorhat to Tinsukia to kindly send in the name of their teams, area and team leader along with phone numbers and email addresses to dasranjantsk@gmail at the earliest. My telephone number is 9435736364. Needless to say that this is a cooperative effort to showcase the birds found in our area and I hope that all will come forward and participate in some way or the other. Thank you and regards, Ranjan Tinsukia, Assam. Big Bird Day Guiding Principles Over many years, the Big Bird Day has been conducted on the basis of a few important guiding principles, which have allowed it to remain independent, driven by enthusiastic birders and focused purely on the mission of watching and recording bird species throughout the country. It is imperative that these principles are shared and imbibed by everyone participating in the Big Bird Day. BBD is fun mixed with some potentially serious business. The fun part is birding without any competition. The serious part is that if 160 (or even more) teams from all over the subcontinent watch birds at 300 locations on the same day, the data becomes very valuable for measuring actual bird diversity of the region. It can form a rich database, especially if accumulated over several seasons/years. 1. BBD is not a competitive event or a “race”. There are no prizes for seeing the maximum number of species, and neither should that be the goal. 2. The Goals of BBD are as follows: a. To cover as much area as possible, trying to avoid overlap b. To identify as many species of birds as accurately as possible and make a note of it without disturbing bird or ecological habitats c. Enjoy bird watching experience and have clean and safe fun d. Encourage and share the fun of bird watching with children and others interested 3. The Outcome of the BBD includes: a. Tabulate a rough idea of the bird species present across the various regions of India b. Contribute valuable data towards a national event c. Create awareness among people towards bird watching and Conservation d. Bring together people of common interest and goals 4. Suggested BBD structure: a. Groups can bird in multiple places (and most will), but participants cannot bird simultaneously in far-flung locales and merge their results in one list. b. Individuals can, of course, join or leave a group in the middle of the event for time constraints or other reasons. c. Participants are thus requested to be mindful about correct enumeration of what they see and be extra careful about out of range/unusual sightings. d. Each team must have a designated group leader, who can ratify the sightings and who also takes responsibility for uploading the days list. e. Identification of the bird as accurately as possible is most valuable. If a bird cannot be identified in the field, detailed notes should be taken for later identification. Supporting material like photographs or sound recordings are valuable to support the identification of rare or vagrant species. f. This event should typically begin from dawn and could last till dusk, and could close with a self organized, self funded event or dinner to get to know each other, share birding and BBD experiences, as may be decided by the respective group(s) and birders g. Some groups may choose to give a certificate of participation to its participants h. BBD teams should avoid venturing into National Parks / Reserve Forests / Wild Life Sanctuaries and do so only with requisite permissions. Future plans can be implemented to cover those areas with the assistance of Forest Department.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:53:24 +0000
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