| BIRDING - A PERSONAL JOURNEY AND A WAY OF LIFE | ||
 | ||
Our speaker for the day was introduced by esteemed member George Abraham. George said that Vivek Tiwari is employed at Intel and that is  his day job, but that’s not what he is here to talk about today, It is about his passion for birding (or birdwatching) . Vivek will share with us how he got started with birding and share also pictures and stories of some of his favorite birds and adventures around the world.Vivek started with a slide entitled “My Birding Journey” – photos by Vivek and Vayun Tiwari and continued with showing us hundreds of pictures of beautiful birds and his life story. Vivek said that he has been interested in nature since he was a 13 year old growing up in New Delhi, India. He had access to “National Geographic” and “Scientific American” and got inspired with the natural world. In particular, a National Geographic special edition in 1983 about Tropical Rain Forests left a big impression on him as he learnt about the wealth of biodiversity in rainforests. Then he went off to college at the Indian Institute of Technology and saw some birds up close through binoculars for the first time, during a nature club trip, and was immediately hooked on to birds. This is where we also met his future wife, Gargi! During college he also went to a WWF Nature Orientation Camp in southern India where he was wowed by seeing a Great Hornbill and further deepened his interest in birds and nature. After that he came to Princeton as a graduate student and was impressed by seeing a Northern Cardinal and went to a bird refuge and met Thomas and Margot Southerland who ran a Nature Tours company and also taught birding classes, which Vivek joined. Thomas became his great teacher and mentor. Vivek mentions that the Institute of Advanced Studies near Princeton University where Albert Einstein spent his last years, dying in 1955, is also a famous birding site. During his graduate years, Vivek also used to drive up to New Haven in Connecticut to volunteer for the New Haven “Hawk Watch”, an effort to monitor the Fall migration of hawks. In 1995, he went bird watching to the Amazon in Peru, the realization of a childhood dream. He came to be employed by Intel and so moved to California and now 25 years later Vivek says that he has seen 3,500 different species of birds, 1/3 of those on Earth!  Now Vivek goes birding with his son Vayun who also loves birding and has become quite a good photographer. In fact, his son has made up an impressive bird calendar for which he is asking for a $20 donation which will go to bird’s charities and in helping to save endangered species of birds (a picture of the calendar and email address will be given at the end of this article). So Vivek went on to show pictures of many beautiful birds that he and his son have photographed – too many for this bulletin, but I have picked out 20 or so photos just to give an idea of the beauty and quality of their work (end of article).Vivek showed pictures of what he thinks is the most beautiful bird (in pictures at the end of this article) which is the Indian Peacock. He then showed us many pictures of hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are only found in the New world (Americas). Then Toucans of different kinds and Manakins, and told us that he went to Brazil in search of a particular species of Manakin (the Araripe Manakin) which is found only in a small area of rain forest of about 26 square kilometers. Last year, Vivek and Vayun went to Ecuador looking for a new species, the Blue Throated Hillstar and Vayun took a beautiful picture of it. Now, Vivek turned his slide show to California Birds – those named with California in their name and showed examples: California Quail (the State Bird of California), Scrub-Jay, Towhee (a large sparrow), Gnatcatcher (found near San Diego), Gull (which is really the state bird of Utah), and Thrasher. And he showed pictures of Central Valley species, snow geese, swans, cranes, ducks, kingfishers, egrets, western meadowlark, horned lark, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, raptors - you see a lot of them in winter – red-tailed hawk, harrier, kestrel, turkey vultures, and the little burrowing owl (which is a threatened species). You can donate $20 and receive Vayun’s beautiful calendar by emailing spiderhunters@gmail.com Vivek’s knowledgeable and comprehensive presentation was great and showed well in the virtuality format. President Vicky told Vivek that in reality we would donate a book, in his honor, to the Carmichael library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public library. some pictures taken by Vivek and Vayun are below: | ||
 | ||
 | ||
 | ||
 | ||
 | ||
 | ||
 | ||
 |
Talk Notes:
Join Vivek Tiwari as his shares his passion for birdwatching (or birding as he prefers to call it) and how its more than a hobby but is a way of life. Whether in one's own backyard or an adventure to some remote forest in an exotic locale, birds provide a unique perspective for understanding the word around us - geographically, ecologically, culturally and also to understand firsthand the environmental challenges that the world faces. Vivek will share how he got started with birding, and share pictures and stories of some of his favorite birds and adventures. In California we are fortunate to live in one of the most biodiverse parts of the US and Vivek will also talk about some of the local birds of Central Valley and other special birds of California.
Biography: Vivek Tiwari
Vivek interest in birds and nature started while he was college in India. Since then he’s lived and birded in North America – 5 years on the East coast during graduate school at Princeton University and the last 20 years as a Santa Clara County resident. A trip to the Peruvian Amazon while he was in graduate school was the realization of a childhood dream, and since then he has traveled extensively to many remote corners of the world in pursuit of birds.
He has seen over 3500 bird species, almost a third of all the bird species on Earth. A self-described “birder first”, Vivek took up bird photography as a way of enhancing the birding experience but finds himself increasingly drawn to bird photography as a rewarding and consuming pursuit in its own right. Vivek works at Intel Corporation where is a Senior Director on Engineering and frequently travels to the Intel campus in Folsom. Skiing and birding trips to the Sierras also frequently take him through the Sacramento area, which almost feels like a second home. In his spare time Vivek organizes nature trips to India (www.Naturally-India.com) and is the Coordinator for the South Asian Natural History Network (nathistory-india@groups.io).