Campus Birding- Experiencing Nature

How to sensitise people to preserve the Environment? How to make every citizen an eco-warrior?

Answer is simple. Let them experience Nature first hand. Walk the talk instead of some boring lectures. BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus took its first step in this direction. It organised a Birding-cum-Nature walk for the faculty, staff and their families on 30th July. Deccan Birders (formerly BSAP- Bird Watchers Society of AP) lent a helping hand. Their members guided the 40+ participants. 

BITS alumni celebrate BITSians Day every year during the first weekend of August. We decided to kick off the celebrations this year in a different way. We, few alumni of BITS helped the Hyderabad campus organise the Nature walk. So, here is an account of BITSians Day with a Difference for BITSian readers. For others, it is a tour of the campus, its greenery and its birds.

Pictures for you. Credit for close up shots of the birds goes to Adnan Uddin of Deccan Birders sine I did not carry my DSLR kit. Other pictures are from my phone camera. Thanks Adnan.

Briefing in progress- as captured in a 20-sec video:

We sighted a total of 28 species of birds in our two-hour walk around the campus. Not all were captured in the camera. But listening to their calls, observing their flight, nesting locations and basics of identification methods kept everyone engrossed. Here is a list of birds sighted by us which shows the rich avi-fauna at the campus.

1. Red-vented Bulbul 

2. Tickle's Blue Flycatcher 
3. Spotted Dove

4. Purple Sunbird
5. Common Iora
6. Common Mynah
7. House Swift
8. Swallow
9. Shikra
10. Dusty Crag Martin
11. Rock Pigeon
12. White Browed Wagtail
13. Blue tailed Bee Eater
14. Darter
15. Indian Pond Heron
16. Cattle Egret
17. Tailor Bird
18. Scaly Breasted Munia
19. Asian Koel
20. Golden Oriole
21. Red Wattled Lapwing
22. Ashy Prinia
23. Indian Robin
24. Jungle Babbler 
25. Oriental White Eye
26. Spot-billed duck (in flight)
27. Comb Duck (in flight)
28. White throated Kingfisher

29. Baya Weaver

Can you spot a nest in the picture below?

Another Munia commonly found is the Indian Silverbill. Though we did not spot it in the campus that morning, here is a picture story of earlier sighting at our home in Secunderabad.

Friendly Munias - Can the birds and dogs be friends? Read on. The picture story also has video clippings of Silverbills feeding together.

Moving on, more pictures of the campus birding follow.

Here is a 30-second video showing the campus panorama and an inquisitive question from a child.

Birding continues...

The campus is also home to Star Turtles. Though we could not spot it, one of the faculty members shared a picture on her phone taken near the pond.

My favourite line which I always tell in any environment related gathering , 'Environment is an asset which we have borrowed from our children. We have no right to degrade or destroy it!' Is it not true?

Will Nature's glory remain? Will our children or grand children continue to see the birds and flowers in future?

Talking of preservation, it is a big challenge. Like the Yapral lake which is home to a large variety of birds, is under threat because of pollution and encroachment. You may browse our earlier story linked below:

Shrinking Urban Lakes- Impending Disaster Will the Heron continue to dance like in the picture below?

For more pictures of Hyderabad campus of BITS Pilani, you may browse our earlier story:

The Campus that Rocks

Thanks for browsing. 

Every small effort to preserve our environment counts. Do volunteer whenever you can and speak up!

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Hyderabad/ 2nd Aug 2023

Postscript:

3rd August: Sujith who came for birding, has sent the following picture of Oriental White Eye or Indian White Eye. He spotted the bird in Hyderabad campus on 2nd August. The bird is perched on a crimson coloured bottle brush flower. Thanks Sujith.

#bitspilani #hyderabadcampus #campusbirding #bitsiansday2023 #nature #preservation #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadhb #ecowarriors #everypersoncounts #savetheearth #environment #pollution #encroachment

Ghumakkad Enters The Double Digit

Your blog, Ghumakkad's blog, turns ten today. Ghumakkad thus enters the double digit with lot of excitement and hope!

How did it start ?

Our set of eight stories on Bhutan, which is so picturesque, was the starting point. From a mere travel blog, Ghumakkad has transformed many folds. And we haven't looked back since then. First three years had only a handful of page views since it was a blog by invitation. Once we made it open, the growth has been overwhelming. See the graph below showing 258,000 page views.

Our Content

Over the years with the support of our readers, we have been able to broaden our content. Telling stories with pictures has been the format. However, the stories are no longer limited to travelogues. Here are few snapshots of our broad spectrum.

• Beating the Covid Gloom: We did more than a dozen stories to bring cheer into our Covid-affected life. We also shared real-life stories of two Covid-survivors of the 1st wave, one each in India and USA. Each story highlighted the power of positivity in those gloomy days. Some of the quick links are given below. 

I got a new life - A Corona Survivor's Tale

Take the Virus Head On - Survivor recipe from another Corona Warrior

Breaking Free In Lockdown

Bouncing Back In Lockdown

Every Day Is A Sunday

Stay Home Stay Safe

Lockdown Is ... Happiness

• Kaun Banega Ghumakkad (KBG): During the Covid-dominated period, KBG online contests have been very engaging and educative. It provided the much needed diversion from gloomy news and charts of Covid. After the first 50 editions of KBG, which posed a question to the readers (to name a plant, tree, insect, fort or a flower), next 23 editions instead asked the readers to give a caption to a picture. The readers creativity in suggesting the captions was overwhelming. Some of the contests which were well contested are An Arch to Captivate You, Lazy Lions, Mutualism by Nature. We will soon be celebrating the 75th edition of KBG. 

• Guest Stories: Ghumakkad always encourages the readers to contribute guest stories for our blog. Rohini Tiwari's story 'A Squirrel Comes Home' has been read by more than 600 readers!

• Bird Rescue: Read how few bird lovers in Secunderabad rescued a Black-Winged Stilt injured by the kite thread manjha.

The manjha spares no one. Few years back, we had rescued a fruit bat injured by the manjha. You may browse the story 'Rescuing an Injured Bat'.

• Nature: Nature continues to inspire Ghumakkad. Can a tree or a plant be your valentine? Or birds and animals? Or insects, bees, butterflies and moths? Yes, why not? Stories like Nature as Valentine and deriving Inspiration from a Butterfly were appreciated by scores of readers. 

• Saluting the Veterans: Our story '50th Year of 1971 War' which featured Naval children besides the Veterans, showcased the motivation of the younger generation.

• Lesser Known India: Though our physical travel was severely curtailed during last two years due to Covid, we did manage to feature two destinations, one each in Telangana and Rajasthan. Read the story 'Devarakonda- The Fort Which Needs Your Support' which highlights the efforts of local community in restoring a 800-year old fort. 

We had featured the Havelis of Khichan Rajasthan in the announcement of Winners of KBG-28. Khichan has some incredibly sculpted Havelis made of red sandstone. Glimpses. 

Learning Together:  In keeping with Ghumakkad's motto of learning together, we believe in sharing our knowledge and experiences. We had conducted a 'live' case study based on Hindi feature film 'Shershaah' last year. Our story 'Shershaah- Beyond The Movie' evoked keen response form not only MBA students but also the faculty members.

Through the movie, we could bring out lessons on 20 different aspects of OB, HRM and Strategic Management.

Most Read Stories

Taking stock on 10th anniversary of the blog, our most-read story continues to be the tribute to a fellow BITSian who gave his life fighting the terrorists in J&K 25 years ago. We salute Capt Ravi Shankar for the supreme sacrifice. Do browse the story 'An Immortal BITSian', if you haven't read it so far. 

The table below lists other most-read stories from our blog during the last ten years. Apart from the stories related to my alma-mater BITS Pilani, it is heartening to that readers have liked the story on Brahma Kamal the Night Queen highlighting one of the Nature's many miracles.

Our blog's readership is not confined to India. As shown in the map below, more than 45% of our readers come from countries across the globe. We thank each and every reader.

For a snapshot of our first eight years as a blog, do browse our story 'Ghumakkad is Eight'.

Moving On

With the Covid restrictions being lifted, Ghumakkad hopes to resume our travels and bring you more stories. Do share your pictures and stories through our blog.

Acknowledgements

There are numerous people who have helped us grow. Some of them had been acknowledged in our 6th Anniversary post. In addition, we place on record our appreciation to the following for their unstinted support.

Trixie Asirvatham our content advisor
Chitra Shanker our advisor on plants, trees, insects and birds

Ramya Sriram logo designer of our KBG Contest

Anchita Nidhindra, Manik Srivastava, Joyshree Banerjee and Akanksha for being the KBG Jury members

We also thank each one of you for your continued support without which Ghumakkad wouldn't have been here! Do give us your feedback to help us improve.

We are reminded of an ad for chocolates which said 'Never too old for a chocolate'. Ghumakkad started blogging at sixty. So folks 'never too old to start blogging!'

    -   Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 13th May 2022

#GhumakkadHarsh #GhumakkadHB #10thAnniversary #BlogAnniversary #HarshBhargava #ThrillOfWriting #JourneyOfLife #BringingSmiles #makingadifference #kbgcontest #kaunbanegaghumakkad #wellness #motivation #inspiration #positivity #nature #environment #teachers #learning #india #mysteriesofnature #travelforfun #beatthelockdown #wildlife #keepgoing #blogger #pictures #photowalks #powerofobservation #students

Heron- A Picture of Grace

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder said Pluto. Our picture of a Grey Heron landing on the thorny trees on the edge of a small lake- conjured up the imagination of our readers. KBG-68, the 68th edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad- the online Caption Contest- attracted more than 40 entries. Before we announce the results, here are few more pictures of the Grey Heron shot around Yapral Lake in Secunderabad India. Whether in flight with legs tucked in, or landing or take off, is the grey heron not a picture of grace?

KBG-68 Contest

The Contest attracted more than 300 readers out of which we received 42 captions. We thank all the participants listed below for sending their creative captions.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-68 Contest
1	Ajai Bhumri	विश्राम का, मेरी ज़िंदगी में, है न कोई नाम । उड़ना, और केवल उड़ना, ही है मेरा काम ॥
2	Amandeep Kaur	Udhti phiru mast gagan mein
3	Avinash Tiwari	I am a Disco Dancer. Aati kya Khandala?
4	Bharat Ladha	मौसम सुहाना है ,चलो सैर कर आएं ।
5	CD Sawant	प्रितम आन मिलो
6	Deepak Jena	Relax we're all crazy, it's not a competition !
7	Deepak Jena	Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.
8	GB Sethi	Pankh lagen to urd jaoun main!
9	GR Sreenivasan	Very graceful and determined to impress, the high and the mighty.
10	Jaishankar	Say not anymore to me that grey is the drabbest of colours, for now have I beheld it's beauty on wings.
11	J Ramamoorty	Three need not be a crowd
12	J Ramamoorty	Grace in action
13	Jyoti Dixit	Grace unmatched
14	Kausalya Govindan	Take off or landing? All in your eyes!
15	LS Bhargava	Fragrance of happiness and beauty
16	LS Bhargava	Do not disturb the nature
17	Manju Khetan	Beautiful!
18	Mukul Bhargava	One is a wanderer and two is company
19	Narendra Soni	तुम छुपी हो कहां मैं फड़फड़ाता यहां
20	Nidhi Bhargava	Get set, ready & fly. Sky is the limit, soar high.
21	Poonam Bhargava	Perfect landing Pilot
22	Poonam Bhargava	छू लो ज़मीं को ऐसे, कोई प्यार करे तुम्हें जैसे।
23	Prabhat Jindal	Ready to Soar and explore the world'
24	Pradeep Siwach	Jo jyada udte hain woh ek din niche aate hain.
25	PRR Rao	प्रितम आन मिलो
26	Rachita Bhargava	“I believe I can touch the sky!”
27	Radhika Sareen	When you are happy and you know it - spread your wings.
28	Radhika Sareen	All set to fly high in the sky.
29	Rajendra Singh	Ace pilot landing on its turf!
30	Rashmi Bhargava	Some birds are not meant to be caged
31	Rekha Bhargava	काश मैं  भी  उन्मुक्त पक्षी होती, मन  चाही दिशा  में पंख फैलाये urti  जाती.
32	Ritu Bhargava	Leap of faith.
33	Rohini Tiwari	Perfect landing!!
34	Shereen Sultana	Landing like a Hero
35	Sujata Das	Every evening in the spring, I waited in the twilight, To watch a heron return to its roost. Telling me summer is at the corner.
36	SR Murari	No catwalk good enough for such beauty and elegance, only Nature's palette
37	Trixie Asirvatham	Uplift. Inspire. Take a leap of faith.
38	Unknown	When you are happy and you know it spread your wings.
39	Unknown	All set to fly high in the sky.
40	Veeky Baths	अभी अभी मैंने लांघा है समुंदरों को, अभी तो पूरा आसमान बाकि है
41	Vinay Prasad	I don't crawl, I don't run I am destined to fly!
42	Yogesh	Flight of Fantasy

Winners

Our Jury has selected the following four captions as the Winners of KBG-68. Congratulations to all the winners. We are happy to share their profiles below. 

Jaishankar, a former Colonel of Indian Army, loves adventure sports and hiking. Widely travelled he has an interesting blog. He is a regular participant in KBG Contests which he has won several times. His caption brought out that grey is not a drab colour and was the Jury's first choice.

As a Naval spouse, Kausalya Govindan has taught life sciences and mathematics to high school students across India. Now as a senior citizen, she says that "Am trying to  accept everyone and everything as they are and finding peace always." Her simple caption 'Take off or landing? All in your eyes!' was appreciated by the Jury.

Trixie Asirvatham has an MA in Psychology from Lucknow University. From an English teacher to a copywriter to a Creative Director of leading advertising agencies  in India, Trixie's creative pursuits continued with web design companies.  She enjoys singing, playing the guitar and writing songs and poems. Her simple caption 'Uplift. Inspire. Take a leap of faith.' appealed to our Jury instantaneously.

Veeky Baths, PhD heads the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at BITS, Pilani Goa Campus. His research interests include Brain Computer Interface, Consumer Neuroscience, Brand perception and Pattern Recognition. He has been a regular reader of Ghumakkad's blog and loves travelling and writing. His caption in Hindi अभी अभी मैंने लांघा है समुंदरों को, अभी तो पूरा आसमान बाकी है means 'I have so far traversed only the oceans, am yet to conquer the skies' showed the confidence of a grey heron. And the lesson it has for all of us!

We thank our Jury Anchita Nidhindra and Akanksha Bhargava for taking time off during the winter holiday season in USA. We once again congratulate all the winners.

One of our readers Shyamola Khanna, an author and a painter, created a water colour based on the contest picture. Reproduced below with the permission of the painter.

We close with a PQ picturesque quote of a Demoiselle Crane in flight and shot in Khichan Rajasthan which says 'If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down!'

Hope we were able to take your mind off the damn Omicron and its rising numbers! Be safe but go out to see the birds, trees, flowers and Nature. It will sooth your frayed nerves.

Wishing you a Covid-free year!

     - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/5th Jan 2022

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