COIMBATORE: A total of 126 bird species have been recorded in the recently concluded ‘Asian Waterbird Census’ (AWC) conducted by Coimbatore Nature Society (CNS). The survey covered nearly two dozen wetlands of Coimbatore.
The CNS formed teams to conduct the survey and each of the teams visited Kannampalayam, Pallapalayam, Ravuthar Road (Irugur), Achankulam, Sulur, Singanallur, Kumarasamy lake, Selvampathy Lake, Krishnampathy Lake, Kolarampathy Lake, Senkulam, Perur Sundakamuthur, Valankulam, Ukkadam, Selva Chinthamani, Kurichi, Narasampathi, Vedapatti, Perur-puttuvikki, Walayar (TN side), Chinnavedanpatti and Kalapatti.
The various teams were headed by the group’s core members including Selvaraj PR, Prakash G, Balaji PB, Sravan Kumar K, Kishore Kumaran S, Chetan H Joshi, Satish K, Sahithya Selvaraj and Pavendhan A, among other CNS members who have participated in the exercise as part of the group’s regular birding trips.
“A total of 6,620 bird counts were recorded during the survey comprising both water birds and land birds. Among them 3,855 were of water birds and the rest 2,765 are land birds.
In each wetland, the total counts varied from 37 bird counts to 884 bird counts with Kalapatti and Perur Puttuvikki accounting for the least and Kurichi accounting for the maximum (dislodging the last year topper Ukkadam) and the average standing at 301 bird counts,” a source from CNS shared with DC.
The group noticed a drop in bird counts by a significant six per cent (from 7,079 to 6,620).
“However, some of the wetlands have dropped in numbers and some gained from previous year. We also noticed that some birds like Spot-billed Pelican tend to be in colony and move from wetland,” the source said.
