The story of how a group took the Pongal Bird Count up a notch

What do birders do during a pit-stop at a highway restaurant when out on a birding trip? They look out for birds, even if it means walking outside holding their plates of food. This is what Arulvelan Thillainayagam, K Selvaganesh and Hareesha A S did during the Pongal Bird Count recently. Held from January 14 to 17, the event was coordinated by Tamil Birders Network and Bird Count India. Arulvelan and team decided to do something different, rather than simply go birdwatching in their neighbourhood. They travelled 2,085 kilometres over three days, covering 32 districts in Tamil Nadu, apart from Puducherry, to count birds.

P Jeganathan, a member of Tamil Birders Network, suggested the idea. “We called ourselves Team Asian Palm Swift,” says Arulvelan, a Coimbatore-based veterinary doctor-turned-banker. For they travelled in a Swift car, and the Asian Palm Swift, a bird synonymous with Tamil Nadu, also flies in threes, according to Arulvelan. “I’d initially planned on getting a driver on board, but he cancelled last-minute, so I ended up driving,” says the 60-year-old.

With Arulvelan at the wheel, the team set out at 5.30 am on January 14 from Coimbatore. Hareesha sat in the co-driver’s seat, while Selvaganesh was seated behind, both armed with mobile phones on which they’d downloaded the eBird app to register their observations. It was a cold morning, but the team was headed to a colder region, the Nilgiris. “It was the first district where we started birding,” recalls Arulvelan. “We stopped at a dense forest in Kunjapanai for around 13 minutes.”

What started on the hills, turned into a road trip that took them through dusty roads in arid landscapes; sandy stretches; and coastal belts, within hours of one another. For the bird count, the birders had to upload check-lists such as Travel (birds seen when the birders were moving), Incidental (those observed on-the-go), and Stationary (seen when the birders stopped at a region for a minimum of 15 minutes). For the latter, the team made it a point to stop at every district.

Arulvelan does admit to having missed out on the action since he was driving. But he made up by pointing out birds he saw by keeping his eyes peeled. “My priority was to drive,” he says. Wherever they were, the men looked for birds. “This included mealtimes,” he explains. “We often combined food and birding. For instance, we sat by the window of restaurants to eat, or pulled up chairs outside.”

To them, all that mattered were birds. And they were treated to some stunning sights. “At Sunset Point in Kanyakumari, we were looking for the Nightjar, but were thrilled to see the Western Reef Heron,” says Arulvelan. Hareesha, a PhD student from Bengaluru, says he will never forget the vision of “thousands of ducks”. This was at Odiyur Lake near Mamallapuram. Selvaganesh, who teaches English at a Government school in Valparai, adds that these were Northern Pintails and Eurasian Wigeons. “We saw over 5,000 of them,” he explains.

The 27-year-old says that their aim was to encourage birders to visit the drier regions such as Karur, Ariyalur, Namakkal, Sivaganga, and Pudukottai, since there is “very less bird distribution information from these places”. The team recorded 332 species, covering almost 7,00 kilometres a day for three days.

Did they see the Asian Palm Swift that they’re named after? It was the last bird they spotted before they ended the trip. Says Arulvelan, “We had stopped at a tea shop before sunset. This bird was on a tree nearby.”