Where do you live?
The city of Ahmedabad; in the bird-paradise called Gujarat

When did you start watching birds?
There was a tree adjacent to the staircase at our home. During the summer vacation of 1980 (I was 10), I noticed that a natural hole in the branch of that tree, which was only 2 to 3 feet away from the stairs, had some bright coloured winged visitors regularly going into and coming out. Fascinated by the brilliant colours of the bird, I spent the entire vacation observing them. That made me want to know more about the bird. Our school had a rule that each student would get a book as a gift from the school on his/her birthday and I received book called “Pankhi Jagat” on my following birthday. I came to know through that book that the bird I was watching is called Coppersmith Barbet. There were many other beautiful birds in that book so I started observing my surroundings to see them. That is how I started watching birds.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
I have been very lucky to have more than one person as my birding mentor. Earliest years in bird-watching were guided by Late Shree Pradhyumna Kanchanrai Desai who has also written many Gujarati books on nature. Our school’s principal Shree Deepakbhai Mehta’s encouragement intensified my thirst for knowing about our surrounding nature. At the age of 14 I joined Bhavngar Wildlife Conservation Society and had a chance to learn a lot from Shree Shivabhadra Sinhji. In the same organisation, I learnt a lot under the guidance of Shree N.C. Bhatt and Shree Mohitbhai Andharia. Attending Shree Lavkumar Khachar’s training while at the nature camps during school is also something I consider myself lucky for.

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
Late Shree Pradhyumnabhai Kanchanrai Desai, my guru in birding, had four African Grey Parrots at his home. He named them “Mithu”, “Charlie”, “Young” and another (I have forgotten the fourth name) He trained them so well that each one was able to mimic Pradhyumnabhai’s voice cleverly and precisely. So much so, that people who were less familiar with Pradhyumnabhai’s voice would not be able to make out if the voice was that of a parrot or a person unless they could see them. The difference was noticeable only after one got familiar with their voices (the parrots voice was nasal and little bit harsh). Each parrot had an individual personality too. One parrot mastered a few “Chopai” of Ramayan, second was good at Gujarati language, and while third was good at English. Fourth one used to ask “Shu karo chho?” in Gujarati (meaning “what are you doing?”).
The times when the parrots were left behind at home while Pradhyumnabhai went out for work were real fun. If a visitor arrived and rang the doorbell, one bird would ask in Gujarati “Kaun?” (meaning who?), while the other one that was more fluent in English would ask “Who?” This would make the visitor think that someone was asking questions before opening the door. The visitor would honestly answer each time and those naughty parrots would keep asking the same question again and again, while the visitor wondered what was going on!

What is/are your favourite migrants?
“Which one is not my favourite?” would be easy to answer; my answer to that would be “NONE”.

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
Thol & Bhaal

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Let’s not keep birding limited to “watching” only.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
For selfish reasons. Sounds weird? Let me explain. If we want our coming generations to see real nature, instead of just images in various formats, we HAVE TO conserve nature. It is for the sake of our coming generations. If everyone firmly decides that “I want my child to be able to see nature intact – not in digitised form”; if everyone understands that the conservation of nature is for the sake of “one’s own” coming generations, then, I believe the result would be would be more effective. That’s why I call it “selfish”.

Visit Amasing Bhaal, a website Aniket has set up devoted to the Bhaal region. Aniket’s MigrantWatch sightings can be seen here.

Naresh Mitra

Where do you live?
Guwahati, Assam

What do you do?

I’m a journalist. Wildlife, environment and sustainable livelihood issues are some of the areas where I do most of my reporting.

When did you start watching birds?
2008, to be precise

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
I will like to acknowledge Sumit K Sen as my first birding mentor

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
I’m still a novice in the field of birdwatching. But my most memorable bird watching-cum- photography experience was in August 2009. I was in Kaziranga National Park and it was raining heavily. I wanted to click a picture of the Grey-headed Fish-eagle that was perched near a water body. My lens did not allow me to take a shot from a distance so I had to crawl closer to the bird and hide behind a bush. The ground was wet and I felt the sensation of leeches crawling on my legs. After few shots, I found that because of poor light the images were too dark. I was disappointed that my hardwork had gone down the drain. After extricating the leeches, I crawled even closer to the bird. There I found the bird sufficiently close to my lens for a descent shot. The light was benevolent, and I came back with highly satisfactory shots.

What is your favourite migrant?
Citrine Wagtail

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
Deepor Beel, which is a Ramsar Site Wetland south-west of Guwahati

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Always try to engage and persuade new people to take to birdwatching. Through birdwatching we can also spread conservation awareness.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
Birds are intrinsic to the ecological health. These creatures provide an interesting peek into the nature’s phenomenon. Even human activities are influenced by birds.

You can write to Naresh Mitra at nareshmitra09 at gmail.com. His MigrantWatch sightings can be seen here.

Udiyaman Shukla

Where do you live?
I live in Golf Links, New Delhi

When did you start watching birds?
I started watching birds at the end of year 2007.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
I mostly do birding on my own, but I take help from K.B. Singh.

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
I was at Sanjay Van, a forest area in Delhi on 11 June 2009 and was waiting for a photographer who was to take my photo. When he arrived, i took him to a scrub area where the light was good. The Photographer (Tashi) told me to pose by looking at a nearby Acacia and pointing at it.
Whether it was luck or destiny, I’m not sure but on that tree…at the exact place I was pointing a Pied Cuckoo flew in and perched! Soon it was joined by another Pied Cuckoo. Tashi took some pics of the birds as a third Cuckoo arrived on the spot. It was a lifer for me and also the first sighting of the Pied Cuckoo in Delhi that Monsoon. Definitely something I’ll remember for some time.

What are your favourite migrants?
My favourite winter migrants are:
Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers
Red-throated Flycatchers
Black Redstart
Common Chiffchaff
Ruddy Shelduck
Ashy Drongo
My favourite summer migrants are the Blue-cheeked and Blue-tailed Bee-eaters.

– What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
My favourite birding spots for migrants are Sanjay Van, Okhla Bird Park, Sultanpur Bird Santuary and Lodi Gardens in Delhi.

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
I myself am something of a beginner so I don’t have much advice on that

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
I feel that people should care about birds as they are an integral part of our ecosystem and add colour to our lives.

Indian Express carried an article about Udiyaman titled ‘Bird Boy’ in June 2009.

You can write to Udiyaman at udishukla@gmail.com. His MigrantWatch reports can be seen here, and his photos on MigrantWatch here.

Snigdha Kar

Where do you live?
New Delhi

What do you do?
I am working on climate change policy and politics as part of the Indian Youth Climate Network’s Agents of Change program.

When did you start watching birds?
In January 2008, while working with Bombay Natural History Society at Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
I started under guidance of Mr. Sajeev T.K. I later joined the Delhi Bird group and got to interact and share knowledge with many keen birders like Cmdr. Kanwar Singh, Mr. Suresh C Sharma. I never got a chance to go out on a birding trip with Dr. Rahmani but I do write to him about my observations and he has been very helpful in explaining to me many aspects of bird behaviour.

Please describe a memorable birding experience
My most memorable birding experience has been that of watching the nesting behaviour of Common Woodshrike in Asola. There is a beautiful watchtower in Asola, which was my favourite place to read. One day when I was taking a group of students on a nature trail near this watchtower a Woodshrike came and sat on a branch next to the trail. I started to explain to the students the nesting behaviours of different birds without even noticing that the Woodshrike is sitting on its nest! Suddenly, I realised that the bird is sitting on its nest. There were two chicks inside the nest and unlike other birds chick there were very quiet. The nest was really small (about 5 cm in diameter and 3 cm deep), circular and built on a Y-shaped branch. I went back to get my camera; it took almost half an hour to find the nest again! After five days I saw that there were actually three chicks not two. I took some pictures; I was later made aware by expert birder of the fact that I should not click pictures of nesting birds.

What is/are your favourite migrants?
My favourite migrant is the Black Redstart.

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
I go birding in Asola, Okhla Bird Park and Hauz Khas.

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Bird watching is fun so go ahead!

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
We simply can’t avoid our responsibility towards the planet that is providing us with all that we need. We should understand the fact that each species on earth has an important role to play and it’s in our hand to protect them. We are destroying the balance of nature and we really depend on nature for all our requirements, be it food, water, cloth, medicine etc. The numbers of vultures have reduced to a critical level due to anthropogenic factor which has resulted in many problems in rural areas, but the sad part is this we have realized the importance of vultures only when the number reduced drastically. Each species is important.

Singdha is an active member of the Indian Youth Climate Network and occasionally Blogs on the IYCN Blog.

You can write to Snigdha on karsnigdha25 at gmail.com or snigdha at indianyouthclimatenetwork.org. Her MigrantWatch reports can be seen here.

MigrantWatch is now a growing community with almost 1,000 participants spread across India. It would be wonderful if we knew a bit more about each other; we felt a good way to do this would be to carry Participant Profiles on the MigrantWatch Blog. This post is the first of these profiles. Read on to learn about Garima Bhatia, who is a very active MigrantWatch participant.

Garima Bhatia

Where do you live?
I live in Koramangala in Bangalore.

What do you do?
I work for General Motors R&D Lab in Bangalore. I am a chemical engineer and my specific area of research is control of particulate emissions from diesel vehicles.

When did you start watching birds?
Birdwatching was always an interest, but it started becoming a serious hobby and indeed a passion only a few years ago, around 2006.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
My first birding mentor was my father who used to point out orioles and kingfishers from our house, when I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Kolkata. More recently, I have had the pleasure to meet and interact with several birders/photographers, from whom I have learnt a lot – Sumit Sen, Adesh Shivkar, Rajneesh Suvarna, to name a few.

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
We were on a family vacation in Coorg, and staying at a nice little home-stay. The residents of the property owned a large coffee plantation across the road. I was a newbie birder in those days and had borrowed my friend’s 8×40 binocs for this trip. Armed with these and my own Panasonic Lumix camera, I sneaked out at the crack of dawn. This was the first time I was birding alone, and Malabar Trogon was at the top of my wishlist.

The coffee plantation was almost like a forest – the thick canopy and lack of light made photography difficult, and I climbed one of the slopes looking for a good vantage point. Suddenly, a movement down below and a flash of rust attracted my attention, and my initial thought “coucal” turned into sheer delight as I looked through the binocs and found I was looking at my target species.

As I prepared to climb down for a better look at this beauty, to my surprise the trogon flew up towards my right and settled down a short distance away. I could scarcely contain my excitement, and crept towards it to get a shot of it from behind a tree. From then on, I was hooked – to birding and photography.

What is/are your favourite migrants?
Verditer flycatcher, black-naped oriole, greenish warbler, chestnut-tailed and rosy starlings visit the green patch outside my balcony every year, and I eagerly await their arrival every year.

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
Besides birdwatching from my balcony, I have also enjoyed countless birding trips to Valley School and Nandi Hills. For water birds, I prefer exploring the numerous lakes off Kanakapura road, outside Bangalore.

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Be a responsible bird-watcher and always keep the welfare of the birds first in mind. Don’t drive off-road if the habitat contains ground-nesting birds like larks, don’t chase birds in pursuit of that perfect shot, stay away from nests and nesting birds – in short, make sure that your actions don’t cause distress to the birds you are watching or photographing.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
We in India are fortunate to have over 1200 species of birds, but many of these are critically endangered due to loss of habitat. Birds are one of the daily reminders of our interconnectedness and dependence on nature. Humanity has already lost several species due to our thoughtless actions, we should learn from the mistakes of the past and make efforts to preserve what we have. This article is a grim reminder of what the west has gone through, and the increased need for “citizen naturalists”.

You can read more about Garima’s birding trips on her Blog.
Garima can be reached at garima.bhatia at gmail.com. Her MigrantWatch reports can be seen here.