Bird sightings by any means, is it necessary?

I had to write this note today, for if I can’t start a debate, register a protest on the use of recorded bird calls for sighting on Salim Ali’s birthday, what other time would be appropriate.

Two years ago at BNHS Sasan Gir camp we noticed almost all the guides on the safari (In almost all national parks, the guides are boys appointed by the forest department during the safari season, and they are allotted by rotation) had recordings of bird calls on their mobile phones.

What was seen as a good tool to learn and identify bird calls has become a tool in the hands of ill-informed guides to please their customers – I presume the birds responded to calls and were sighted. We had in Gir told the guides not to play any calls. In Gir at least the issue is settled for most visitors come hoping to sight the lions and not so much for birding. Also, a dry forest like Gir makes bird sightings lot more easier than the dense Himalayan forests or the rain forests of North East.

We were in Nagaland recently, the first BNHS camp there. Our first stop naturally was to see the migratory phenomenon of Amur Falcons. Luckily, there were thousands of them, in fact it could be over a lakh many estimated. It was an amazing sight, a valley full of falcons.

The area around Doyang reservoir was otherwise a little disappointing. Either, we were not lucky or other bird sighting in the area is poor in general. But, there was an additional factor that was pointed out for poor sighting – hunting.

We ourselves could see several youth roaming around in motor cycles with airguns, obviously hunting.

In fact campaigning by local groups, BNHS and other NGOs had only in the last two years halted the hunting of Amur Falcons. Before that we were told thousands of falcons used to be hunted on a single day.

Our local guides promised Khonoma would be a different story. Khonoma Nature Conservation Trust had worked hard in the last 15 odd years to stop hunting in their village and therefore sightings are better.

After a long and arduous journey we reached Khonoma late in the evening. Tired, I retired to bed early and so missed a chat with the local guide who had come to give an idea of birding there and the plan for next morning.

My room mates later told me of the conversation – the guide said it is impossible to sight rare and endemic birds in the North East without playing bird calls. Camp mates were divided, while some wanted bird calls to be played for sure others opposed it as not ethical.

The team leader sort of arrived at a compromised to ensure limited playing of bird calls. Even this I found very disturbing. I am not a good birder, not even an average, so may be not the right person to comment. But, I had heard earlier from one of my hard core birder friends on the issue of playing bird calls in the North East.

Some of the high profile birders, photographer groups have been going to the North East, and had rampantly used bird calls for sighting and photography. Birds responded for a while and later stopped. We have not studied if it did impact the mating patterns of birds, what happened when the birds stopped responding to the real calls mistaking them for fake recorded calls.

Then, these gangs moved on to the next trick I heard – that they started playing owl calls. Owl calls are alarm calls for birds, for they can be attacked by owls. To what levels can we stoop to see birds – I know some of the tiny birds are extremely difficult to sight, and some of the North Eastern birds are gorgeous. But, is sighting more important than saving them from danger?

One of my camp mates said, if we don’t sight they are lost forever, and we should by any means see the birds. I couldn’t agree with him. Not every one of us is a researcher, a conservator and therefore necessary to sight and record.

Let us mainstream this debate today on Salim Ali’s birthday and come up with our own personal guidelines on what would do and we won’t.

Some said even going to watch them, shooting them with our cameras are enough disturbance. Is that the same as fooling the birds with fake calls, and putting them in danger with owl calls?

To be fair our team leader in Nagaland tried her best to balance for and against in the camp. She made sure very limited attempts were made to do bird calls and ruled out owl calls.

I stayed on the side lines, was not much of a participant in birding this camp. I was happy to observe, I am not sure if my camp mates agree with my observation – birds behaved very smartly.

Almost all the bird calls played failed to bring the birds up in the open. In some cases I could see that birds responded to the call by sounding out and getting a response calls from their partners and moved inside. It would be heartening to know if the birds have found a way to escape falling in to the trick of recorded bird calls being played.

I only hope they have also understood how to deal with the owl calls. But, noting can rest on hope. Would wait till someone does a study on this, comes out in open with some self-regulation among tour groups. Wish BNHS as a conservation organisation plays a role in this…BNHS you recognized Khonoma Nature Conservation Trust as doing good conservation job and gave them a cash award too. You have a stake in the conservation efforts, which I would think includes an ethical approach to tours.

I do not doubt BNHS’ ethical approach – I have stuck to doing nature camps and trails only with them mainly for the ethical approach and the diversity of campers they bring together.