Bagish K Jha | TNN | Feb 8, 2016, 12.23 PM IST
Gurgaon: Basai has recently been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, with real estate eating up most of the lake that existed in the village and acted as a magnet for migratory birds. On Sunday, it was back in the news for the right reasons, as birders from across NCR hit the ground early as part of the annual Big Bird Day. They were there till late evening, recording details of all the birds they had managed to spot.
"The event is mostly organised in February and March, as the season is
right for spotting water, migratory and local birds," said Abhishek
Gulshan of Delhi Bird Group, an amateur body of birders which organises the
event every year, in which birders spend the day counting the number of species
spotted, number of birds of each species, their habitat, etc. This year's
results will be published by the group on Monday on ebird.com.
Pankaj Gutpa of Delhi Bird Group said his team spent the day at Basai and
nearby areas. Among others, they spotted species like the water rail, water
pipit, cinnamon bittern, Baillon's crake, Indian scops owl, Indian courser,
mallard duck, ferruginous pochard, Spanish sparrow, Peregrine falcon,
bar-headed goose, greylag goose, moustached warbler. Sheila Chhabra, who lead
the group at Basai, said the numbers were good, while adding, "But we fear
that Basai, a natural wetland, may disappear in the coming years due to heavy
construction around it."
"Big Bird day is a wonderful celebration of our avian friends through the
dedication of an entire day to bird watching and recording the number of
species sighted in the region," said Pankaj Gupta of Delhi Bird group adding
that Big Bird Day was initially started by their group as an informal event
held in February and March.
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