The first meeting of Bird Atlas – Thrissur was held on 01-07-2015 in Thrissur town. 9 bird watchers in and around the town discussed about ways to take the project forward, which is due to be launched on 15th of July. Locations to be surveyed have been mapped to the lowest sub-cell, which is 1.1km x 1.1 km in dimension. There are 280 locations in Thrissur district (10% of the area) to be surveyed. These have been grouped into 80+ clusters based on the accessibility.
Each cluster containing 3-4 sub cells will be surveyed by a team of 2-4 bird watchers, in which at least one will be an expert. About 180 of the sub-cells fall on inhabited areas. Job of surveying those clusters was entrusted to a few bird watchers based on their proximity to the selected locations. Remaining locations will be surveyed with logistic support from KFD. There are a few locations where there is a scarcity of bird watchers – like Shornour, Pazhayannur, Mayannoor, such locations will have to be covered by traveling from base stations.
There are another set of 100+ locations in forested areas. Some of these are accessible by road while others need camping inside the forest. A detailed plan of these areas will be prepared soon.
Team discussed on how to make use of the available maps in the field. One idea was to get physical print of each sub-cell with land marks. There will be a map showing one cluster followed by maps of sub cells in it. Use of Android app. – GPS to locate the current position with respect to each sub-cell was discussed in short, details of which will be explored soon.
Dr.P.O.Nameer, Raju Kavil, Sreekumar, Sreehari, Rafi Kallettukara, Chitrabhanu, Manoj.K, Prasanth, Ram Mohan & Praveen were present in the meeting. Team expressed confidence in completing survey well within time.
I request all my friends to actively participate in this initiative. Expect cooperation from birders across borders!
Regards,
Praveen.E.S