Dear Jeyamohan sir,
I am Rithvikka, studying in IVth standard. I’ve been expecting to come to Nithyavanam at Vellimalai for more than 2 years since my father started going there. I have seen my dad tired before going there, he seems happy and active and started doing more activities after going there. So I also wanted to come there. Finally, I got a chance to come there for bird watching with my father. The journey started on a train to Erode. Fortunately, we got a chance to travel with one of our teachers Anbharasi madam (I call her Akka, because I became her roommate) from Erode to Vellimalai. And watching birds started from Erode itself.
Our first surprise started when Anbharasi akka identified a bird just by listening to its sound (that was hard to see and it was unheard to me), that is Indian Nightjar (Merlin app also confirmed it). Next day, the class started. Vijaya Barathi sir taught us how to identify birds by its size, colour, shape of the body parts as well as ratio of body parts etc. He also told the importance of place, its behaviour when looking, location (kind of land or water) and season in finding a bird. Eswar sir played sounds of multiple birds for us to learn how to identify a bird by its sound.
They told facts, real stories of birds as well as stories (for children) related to birds. They also put fun activities and tests like ‘what would you name this bird’ ‘find the bird by its shadow’ ‘identify the bird by its sound’ ‘find the name of the bird’ etc which were so enjoyable. We went for bird watching sessions in the morning and evening. Once we went to a reserve forest area at Madam, that bird watching session was the most exciting part.
I got to know about many species that I’ve never seen or heard of. Now I watch many of those birds at my home area itself and we also started going for bird watching almost every weekend. Vijay Barathi sir had told us that, “If you can understand one species of bird or animal really well, you can understand the whole world.
Since Nov 1st, it’s been Salim Ali month special. We got pictures of birds everyday and we had to find what bird it is and send the answer in the form (link). I learned so many new birds that I never knew. Now I remember memories of the fun and suspense searching about the bird. I loved this activity.
This has made me more interested in birds and the environment and it is one of my favorites.
Thank you so much sir.
Rithvikka S
