Summary on Kole Bird Count 2018

SUMMARY ON KOLE BIRD COUNT 2018 (7 Jan 2018)

As part of the Asian Waterbird Count-2018, the water bird count at the Kole Wetlands – a Ramsar site and an Important Bird Area, was held on 7 January 2018. This is the 28^th year of organised bird count at Kole Wetlands. The whole data on the AWC 2018 has been uploaded into the eBird under the account “awckerala” and the summary below is generated from the eBird (www.eBird.org).

A total of 29,805 birds in 77 wetland depended species were counted this year. This is about 18,507 individual birds lesser than the previous year’s count in 2017, when 48,312 birds were counted in 74 sp. Fewer numbers were recorded on the ducks, cormorants and egrets/herons. The detailed count statistics on the birds of the Kole Wetlands, in comparison with the last couple of years count is given in Table 1.

The total wetland dependant birds countedfrom Kole Wetlands in 2015 was 55144, while in 2016 was only 31781. The count was done in 11 base camps in Kole Wetlands such as Adat, Enamav, Palakkal, Thommana, Mulloorkayal, Manakodi, Pullazhi, BiyyamKayal, Uppungal I &UppungalII and Marancherry.

About 170 birdwatchers participated in the count, and the teams were led by some of the acebirders in the State such as Dileep KG, Raju S, Jayachandran ES, Shino Jacob, Premchand R, Vishnu Kartha, Manoj Karingamadathil, Anith Anilkumar, Vivek Chandran, Praveen ES, Raveendran KC, Mukundan K, Jamaludheen, Latha Prabhakaran, Mathews BA, Jishnu K Kizhakkillam, Krishnakumar Iyer, Sreekumar Govindankutty, Sunil Jaleel, Pushap CR, Greeshma Paleri, Arun Bhaskaran, Mathew Thekkethala, Nesrudheen, Prasanth Sachindranath, Arun George, Dr.Adil Nafar A, Regin George, Sreekumar ER, Syamlil MS et al.

The survey was jointly organized by the Kerala State Forest Department, KAU & KoleBirders, with excellent support from NGOs across the State such as Alapuzha Natural History Society (ANHS), Birders Ezhupunna, Chilla Nature Club_KAU, Cochin Natural History Society(CNHS), Kasargode Birders, Kerala Birders, Kidoor Birders, Kottayam Nature Society (KNS), MNHS (Malabar Natural History Society), Malappuram Birders, Indian Bird Conservation Network, Bird Count India and the Centre for Wildlife Studies, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU).

The seminar on the Wetland Conservation held on the 6 Jan 2018 was inaugurated by Dr. Indira Devi, Director of Research, KAU, and was presided over by Dr. K Vidyasagaran, the Dean of College of Forestry, KAU. Many scientists and officials from the KAU as well as KFD also did attend the meet. The survey was flagged off by Dr.PatilSuyogSubhashrao IFS, the DFO, Thrissur FD.

P.O. NAMEER

AWC State coordinator

Table 1. The waterbird count from the Kole Wetlands, 2015 to 2018