To celebrate this year's Earth Day, Wildlife Research and Conservation Foundation (WRCF) and Nature Classrooms collaborated with Early Bird to organize a fun birding session with the children of Al-Masoomen Trust in Badamwari, Srinagar.
April 21st, 2024
Facilitated by Dr. Mehreen Khaleel and Tahir Gazanfar from WRCF, and volunteer Syed Abrar, the 2-hour session witnessed participation from 14-boys who engaged in birdwatching, storytelling, drawing and games! The session was kicked-off with a round of introductions and with the participants sharing their favorite birds and what makes them so special.
Birdwatching Session
The birdwatching session started with watching a bird, describing its features, identifying features and observation of the activities that the birds were engaged in. As it was the beginning of the day, the facilitators explained the activities that most birds perform during that time. The participants used binoculars to observe birds, their behaviour, and their habitats. They were also shown how to use bird field guides, and the participants referred to them throughout the activity with support from Dr Mehreen and Tahir.
Storytelling Session
Tahir narrated a short story about each bird species sighted whenever the birdwatching activity posed an opportunity. The stories helped them relate to the bird's characteristics.
Habitat Drawing
Participants were divided into teams of three to draw the landscape and place birds (names / draw whatever they observed) in their respective habitats.
One of the participants narrated a few points about any 5 species encountered in this activity and any peculiar feature they observed.
Spring Bingo Activity
Nature Classrooms, in collaboration with WRCF, created the Spring Bingo for Kashmir. The participants were divided into teams and asked to complete the bingo in 5 minutes. During this time, they had to observe sights connected to spring, such as nesting or singing birds, blossoming plants, and insect activity.
Bird Migration Game Activity
As guided by Abrar, participants formed two teams and competed against each other in the bird migration game. One participant from each team roleplayed as a bird (either a Mallard or a Red-crested Pochard) while being blindfolded and traveling through obstacles to start from one point and reach another, as the other team members directed the bird. In between, they had elements of a suitable habitat as well as obstacles formed by various dangers such as changes in seasonality, transformation of habitat, and hunting. The team that reached successfully to the end in the shortest time won.
Winding Up
Dr Mehreen Khaleel and Tahir Gazanfar from WRCF presented a bird field guide to the Al-Masoomeen Boys Trust, and also shared a bird poster, while Nature Classrooms shared the Spring Bingo sheets.
We would like to thank Dr. Mehreen Khaleel and Tahir Gazanfar, WRCF; Ovee Thorat, Nature Classrooms' Kashmir Fellow; Syed Abrar, Volunteer; the children from Al-Masoomeen Boys Trust and the Early Bird team for bringing together such a beautiful nature-learning session!
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