So this story goes back to my fourth semester in BS-MS when I credited a mandatory biology course on Ecology and Behaviour. This was during pandemic and I was atteding courses online from my home.
My home is a very small town in Maharashtra, India, settled away from the hustle of city. Now this course I was taking required us to step outside our house and observe birds, and being a sincere student,
so did I. I birded atleast thrice almost every week for about three months of the course duration with a pair of very old Bushnell binoculars at home, and I identified over 70 species of birds in my neighbourhood.
As you may guess, I did not have any damn idea that my neighbourhood housed so many species of birds. This entire exercise made me feel embarresed for being so oblivious to the nature surrounding me,
but simulteneously it gave me a newfound interest in birdwatching. I birded extensively in my neighbourhood throughout the pandemic. I visited the forests, the small hills and the waterbodies near me.
I observed same birds every single day from my room window and I also was pleasantly surprised to find new migrated bird species with changing seasons.
Then I came back to my campus in Mohali. For those unaware, IISER Mohali campus in Punjab is a biodiversity hotspot housing various species of birds, plants, reptiles and insects. It is also one of the top
birding hotspots in Punjab on eBird with sightings of over 170 native and migratory birds. Such an environment flourished my newfound hobby even more. While birding
in the campus, slowly few people, especially from junior batches, started getting curious (who wouldn't grow curious of me roaming alone in the jungle area of campus with a bulky pair of binoculars and a
bulkier camera!) and soon they started joining me for the birding trips. This made me read up more about the habits and peculiarities of different bird species, not only because it's super interesting, but
also because I could now share this information with my new bird-friends! This is basically how my interest in birding and ornithology began and it hasn't faded even an inch since then.
Now given this whole history, obviously I have a dedicated section for this hobby with all sorts of coolest bird facts and data and I don't even know what all! This is that page which will probably be
the most active page with various random information relevant to birds and birding community!