Best team of bird watchers spots 152 species

CHANDIGARH: Did you know that the city has as many as 152 species of birds that can be spotted in a day's work? Well, provided you are a die-hard bird watcher.
Nearly 80 bird watching enthusiasts participated in the first-of-its-kind 'Bird Race' in the city on Sunday with the target of spotting the maximum number of species. Organized by Amateur Bird Watchers of Chandigarh, the competition was from dawn to dusk, beginning at 6 AM and finishing at 6:30 PM.The winner came back with the highest count of 152 bird species.
As many as 20 teams, consisting of four bird watchers each, participated in the event in which teams had the task of sighting as many species of birds as possible from the 353 that exist around Chandigarh.
''The teams took off early morning and we had to go bird hunting around a 40-kilometre radius. There are over 300 species in Chandigarh and it is tough to spot all of them in a day, so the team that spotted the maximum was to be the winner,'' said Rima Dhillon, one of the organizers of the bird race.
The teams were required to visit as many at 10 places like the Nepli forest, Sukhna Lake, Morni Hills, Chattbir zoo, Khaggar and the old Kasuali road to be able to spot birds. The winning team ' Oreos, of Geeta and Anil Chaddha visited five locations and sighted 152 species of birds.
''To be able to spot these many birds, we had to frantically run to their probable hideouts. It was a tight rope challenge as we had only 12 hours to go to all the places and head back but the experience was great fun overall and we would love to do it again,'' said Geeta Chaddha, a member of the winning team.
The teams that came in second and third were 'Pintail' and 'Hawk', spotting 127 and 93 species respectively.
''To spot different species, various kinds of locations require to be visited. This is something extremely exciting to do and we had a lot of fun being part of this race,'' said Nasbeer Carlo, a member of Pintail.