Sandeep kumar reddy Gangasani, October eBirder of the Month

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Sandeep kumar reddy Gangasani of Andhra Pradesh, India—winner of the October 2023 eBird Challenge, sponsored by ZEISS. Sandeep’s name was drawn randomly from the 4607 eBirders who submitted five (5) or more eligible checklists on 14 October. Sandeep will receive a new ZEISS SFL 8×40 binocular for his eBirding efforts. Thank you to everyone who participated in the October eBirder Challenge, we are grateful for your support and continued dedication to data collection and conservation. Here’s Sandeep’s birding story:

It’s an extreme pleasure to know that I have been selected as the eBirder for the month for October. It was my long standing dream to be among the eBirders of the month since I started using eBird.  It is easier to keep a record of species, date, time, and location with eBird. One of the biggest changes that eBird brought me is recording bird sounds. I record the calls and songs of birds regularly. This has completely changed the way I watch birds. Now birding is beyond my passion and is part of my life.

Bird Survey with members of Andhrapradesh Birdwatchers Group

In 2016, I was inspired to start birding by my professor Dr. Sreekumar. One of my college seniors and mentors in birding, Dr. Vigneshwaran, introduced me to eBird. During Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) 2017, Surendhar Boobalan mentioned call recordings and using Merlin for bird ID. When planning  birding trips we always look through the nearest hotspots in eBird, which helps us shortlist spots for birding.

I love observing birds and enjoy watching each and every one of them. I can’t resist admitting that my first lifer was Oriental Magpie Robin. I used to hear its sweet songs at 4am but never got to see the bird till some time later.

With the help of Raja Bandi  I went birding with team members of the Indian Institute of Science, Education, and Research (ISSER, Tirupati) and since then, have been an active member of the Andhra Pradesh Birdwatchers group. Thank you to Chandra Sekar Bandi who I met there and who taught me to explore other life-forms in nature along with birding.

My ultimate goal in life is to watch and observe birds-of-paradise in New Guinea.

I’m extremely thankful to eBird and ZEISS for the new binoculars that will help me greatly as I continue my birding adventures.

I would like to thank my parents, birding mentors, all my friends and eBird for supporting and helping me in my birding.

Birding for Pongal Bird Count (a local count of Tamilnadu state) in Pondicherry