Dear friends,
You know every year there is an event called the Bird Race that happens in Mumbai and other cities during the winter season. Due to the nature of competition and likelihoods of reporting erroneous data, we at SPROUTS refrain from entering the competition as participants. However, we strongly believe that it is a good opportunity to initiate many new amateur bird-watchers and to excite them about watching birds and look for ecological associations.
We take this opportunity to request our members to kindly volunteer your services to lead students and other new birders, rather than participate as a competing team, which means please holdback the temptation of winning a prize and work to guide newbies...
Please write to pranadpatil@gmail.com or call on 98194-29433 to confirm your services as a group leader. Please note that we shall NOT be participating for the awards' sake, so ONLY if you are ready to promote bird-watching and the discipline of correct observations, should you volunteer your services. Also, last minute cancellations and backing out will lead to problems, so please be sure that you will be available to keep to your commitment and only then confirm your offer as a group leader.
Also any members with cars who may wish to offer to drive around some kids may also volunteer and we shall try and see if we can take a bunch of underprivileged kids for birdwatching on that day.
Eagerly awaiting your phone calls and confirmations.
Cheers,
Anand Pendharkar
Director, SPROUTS
Dear All
The registration for the Mumbai Bird Race 2010 is ON *and we expect /
request the experts / leaders to confirm their participation well in advance so that we can allocate the groups accordingly.. Kindly indicate if you would like to lead a group. If you have a group along with you, kindly indicate the area in which they live and also if a vehicle is available with the group for the race....
I am resending the previous mailer for those who have deleted/ignored the same .... :).. i do it too sometimes.. so I know all about it !!
Looking forward to a continuous flow of registrations in the coming weeks along with the relevant details to be provided as below:
Name of Group (if selected)
Name of Leader
Participant Names
Locations of residence
Contact Nos
If vehicle available / not available
Regards
Ravi Vaidyanathan & Pravin Subramanian
(Coordinators - Mumbai Bird Race 2010)
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It first started with the Mumbai Bird Race on Feb 27, 2005 and in just 4 years has now spread to over almost all the major cities in India. This year the 6 th HSBC India bird races has already been conducted in 3 Metro Cities and the response to these were tremendous to say the least. It has surely become one of the major and the most popular events in India's bird watching world.
*We would like to announce the most eagerly awaited event for Mumbai's
birders, the 6th *HSBC* Mumbai Bird Race 2010 to be held on Sunday, 21st
February 2010.....*
You are requested to confirm the participation at the earliest, so that the team formation can be done in advance and we can have a clearer idea for organizing the evening function and the event smoothly.
As you all know this will be a dawn to dusk event where teams of
bird-watchers will spend the entire day birding in and around 60Km radius of Mumbai city. The participants will try and record as many species of birds as possible, learn about the finer points of bird-watching from the experts and the experienced, and then later in the evening, all teams will meet at a select venue over dinner and an interactive tête-à-tête.
The venue for the interactive get-together and dinner will be the same as the previous year -- the verdant realm of the Maharashtra Nature Park, right in the heart of Mumbai.
Despite strict rules, there is a fun element to this exercise, which would help stimulate enormous interest in bird-watching as a highly popular hobby. Most importantly this event provides a wonderful opportunity for all the birdwatchers of the region to get together, catch-up with each other, exchange notes and talk bird lore and re-seal working relationships. This event also gives us a rough idea of the nature of this region's birdlife that goes a long way in building up support for environment and nature conservation.
Of course, there is also the team spirit and participation that comes into focus here. To ensure that the results are as infallible and in principle as correct as possible, the Mumbai Bird Race will have special adjudicators who analyze the results and announce the winners at the evening programme before dinner. Each Team gets an opportunity to interact with the others and recount their day's experiences and bring in a great end to a day well spent with and for the feather folk, and for nature.
Please send an email confirming your participation ONLY to *
mumbaibirdrace2010@...*.
Please include your contact number and if you have a vehicle available, because it will help us plan the day's programme (Further details on how to participate are given at the end).... also request you all, NOT to hit the reply button on this mail and send your registration or comments to the entire group, please only send the same to the above given email ID.
Please note that there is no registration or any participation fee for the event. All *HSBC* Mumbai Bird Race participants (only) will receive special memento. More information and details on the race, will be updated in the near future on our website: www.indiabirdraces.com
Special request to all senior birders to participate, and share their
invaluable knowledge with beginners & children.
Remember, the greatest prize would of course be the fact that you
participated in this unique event that is now an annual specialty and that you get an opportunity to meet birders of your region on a single platform.
Warm Regards,
IndiaBirdRaces Organizing Team
www.indiabirdraces.com
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A -- RULES & LOGISTICS:
1) This is a teamwork exercise. A Team of 4 or 5 persons is a must and which must include a good birder who is familiar with the site's/region's avifauna.
2) Each Team will have its own unique Bird name, and you are free to choose your name, the only condition being it must be a species recorded in that particular region. You can call your team Jungle Babblers, Black Drongos, whatever
3) You are also free to constitute your own team but please ensure that at least one of you is a proficient birder, familiar with the region's birdlife, and he/she will be the Team Captain.
4) Every Team will remain as a composite unit for the entire day and until the evening's programme. The Team may, if it so wishes, employ the services of a driver for their vehicle (if they should choose a site that involves driving). This driver may or may not be a birdwatcher. In fact, depending upon sites chosen, please try constitute a team in such a manner that at least one of you has access to a vehicle.
5) There are no pre-determined routes or birding spots. Any Team is free to choose its own route and site for the day. (But not very far considering the fact that all team and participants have to converge for the evening's programme. You can Walk, Trek or Drive as much as you may to a site or a cluster of sites within approx.60 kms around Mumbai.
There may be two or five or ten teams in the same area. That doesn't matter
and is in fact the secret to this Bird Race.
6) The Bird Race begins at dawn and ends just before sunset, say about 5.30 pm at the evening venue where all the teams need to submit their logbooks. Please note that log books submitted after 5.30 will NOT be considered for any prizes.
7) The evening's programme would start at 6 pm and get close by around 11.00 pm. For sure, you wouldn't mind one groggy get-up on a Monday morning, for bird sake.
8) A Team does not discuss with any other team what it has recorded but merely logs it all down in the provided bird-list Logbook. The Logbook also contains details of the sites covered and the route taken. The captain of each Team presents this Logbook at the evening presentation (before 5.30 pm) to the special adjudication team whose decision will be final.
9) The Team with the maximum number of species recorded as acceptable is adjudged the winner. There will be some exciting prizes that will be announced soon.
OTHER POINTS:
THERE ARE ALSO SOME OTHER INTERESTING PRIZES.
* There is a BIRD OF THE DAY PRIZE. This goes to the team that has reported a most exciting species for the day.
B -- REGARDING LOGGING OF DATA, IT IS CRUCIAL THAT:
1. All species sighted/heard must have been done so by all members of a team, and must have been positively identified. All species that have been heard only must be marked with a HO in the Logbook but will qualify as a species entry.
2. Only species mentioned in the provided list will be accepted. This list will be emailed and you may print the same. However, the Logbook (list with appropriate columns) will be provided separately. Any sightings of species other than on this list should be reported as a separate entry in a suitable spot on your Logbook. This List has been prepared from all known records of the region's avifauna.
3. Please note that the decision made by the adjudicators will be considered final. The adjudicators will have all the rights to verify the sightings if they have any doubts. Any log books with more than 5 wrong entries (if found by adjudicators) will be considered void.
4. Any dead or injured bird(s) which may come across during the course of the Race do not count as a species entry.
5. All species, residents, winter-migrants must be recorded.
6. Most importantly, No manner of artificial attraction of birds would be allowed. No clapping, chucking a stone into the canopy or other form of flushing or attracting by any form of whistling or other source. No attraction of birds by tape-recording is allowed. The welfare of birds must come first, always and every time. Do not collect eggs or otherwise disturb a nest. Any team, if found to violate this term, will be DISQUALIFIED from the race.
C -- WHAT YOU WILL BE PROVIDED:
1) A Logbook, that contains the species list of the region, to note down all details, the team composition, routes, final tally, other needs.
2) Written permission, where required
D -- WHAT YOU MUST CARRY:
Food (as required, keeping in mind you will be out pre-dawn to dusk). Of course, you can make-up at the evening's dinner.
Water (as required)
A change of clothes (as may be reqd for the evening's programme)
Your Binoculars, a Bird field-guide, Cap etc
The organizers will not provide transportation, incidental expenses,
breakfast or Lunch during the Mumbai Bird Race.
E -- WHAT WE GAIN:
Besides the fun element, this exercise helps in Team spirit, Team building, Integrity, and patience. And of course, ability to once-in-a-while come together for Nature.
We could also get a rough idea of what could be the number of species
sighted over a 12 hour day period in this over-built, overpopulated region, and what this means.
F -- HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
1. Every Bird-lover is welcome to participate in the Mumbai Bird Race.
2. To take part in the Bird Race you MUST register your name/team with the organizers of Mumbai Bird Race.
3. To register yourself or your team, please send an e-mail to
mumbaibirdrace2010@... and include your name, address, Telephone
number(s), Mobile No., e-mail ID. Also, indicate if you are alone or
part of a team. If you are part of a team, please send the details on all the team members, as indicated above. The Mumbai Bird Race team will get back to you.
4. Please indicate if you have a vehicle of your own and if you are using your car, indicate if you are willing to take others on the Bird Race.
5. The registration will begin from December 20, 2009 onwards.
6. Details on the Bird watching sites in and around and the venue for the evening function/get-together on February 11, 2010 will be made known later - to all the registered participants.
