kolkata birdwatchers society a platform of bird enthusiasts that was formed around five years ago organised their first public bird watching walk in the south kolkata biodiversity hot spot rabindra sarobar on sunday morningaround 45 people aged between 12 and 75 turned up for the walk including those who had read about it online and others who were on a morning walk at the lake during the threehour exercise which began at the lakefront to sight waterbirds and then to the safari park for other varieties of winged guests newbies learnt how to be alert to bird calls spot birds amidst foliage and look them up on the internet to identify them among the birds that were sighted near the lake on sunday were cormorants painted stork night heron and different varieties of kingfishers we used telescopes and binoculars to show the birds to the guests the event was organised to make people enthusiastic about nature in general and birds in particular the birding culture has exploded in the last 10 years thanks to social media and there is room for everyone to join the movement said sujan chatterjee the societys secretary the organisation is planning to hold such walks every month this was our first public walk and we will organise them regularly to get more people interested in bird watching though access to central park has become challenging now we hope the forest department reverses the decision so that we can organise the walks there too said maj retd b s parihar the societys treasurer opthalmologist anirban bhaduri who is also a bird enthusiast hoped a similar walk at salt lake central park would be a reality soon