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On a cold Sunday morning, while most level headed people would rather not budge out of bed; draped in many layers of woolens, I am headed out into the morning mist looking for Wigeons, Pintails, Shovelers, Warblers, Pipits, Wagtails, Buntings, Chiff chaffs, Godwits, Stilts, Dunlins, Green shanks, Ospreys….
…Well before you get any other ideas, these are my avian friends whom I am familiar with for over two decades.
I am known as a twicher (birdwatcher in another tongue) and what I love to do most is to go out twitching. My regular companions being a pair of binoculars, bird books and a couple of like-minded twitching friends. The pleasure is only for the early risers. People who love and enjoy nature and to get engrossed in a hobby that opens a whole new world.
5.00 am: It is cold and dark as I leave my house and will take at least an hours drive to my favourite wetland. There lies an abundance of migratory birds that find their way into the subcontinent escaping the ever-colder climes up north.
6.00-6.15 am; It is still dark on arrival, and I meet up with my fellow birders at the regular parking lot. After customary greetings we set off at the break of dawn for our bird walk. But we see nothing in the thick blanket of mist, which has enveloped us all, visibility, is so poor that we can hardly see a few meters in front of us.
6.30 - 7.30 am; As the minutes go ticking by, the mist slowly lifts to reveal us a horizon dotted with an assortment of waterfowl and waders. It is wake up time for all and the noise of various colonies now fill our senses and ears. Suddenly everything becomes hectic and things happen at a break neck speed, as small groups are seen flying past from here to there. In the sky above there is a constant fly past and then there is this job of spotting 'this n that', who goes where and which group was what.
Birding in a small group comes handy when one doesn't want to miss much of the action around, as the job of spotting and reporting is done simultaneously by all. It is a small game we play all the time, to notch up as many species as possible, and on any good Sunday it might be in the range of 60 to 70 species. Believe it or not, that too in just a couple of hours of birding.
We scan the water body with our binoculars and keep on tracking different species … Black tailed Godwits to the right, Common Sandpipers at position four o' clock, Kingfisher on the stump, Tufted ducks just across right to Garganeys, Pintails and Wigeons behind the water hyacinth, Jacanas in front, Avocets coming in over to the right, Ruddy shelducks flying eastwards… But the most magnificent sight is that of a line of pink. It is the flock of Greater Flamingoes, they are a captivating sight whether on ground or in flight.
As the sun rises we find ourselves standing in front of almost 10,000 to 15,000 duck and goose flock which include a number of species, including the Bar-headed and Grey-lag Geese, Ruddy and Common Shelduck, Pintails, Coots, Wigeons, Shovelers, Garganeys, Ferruginous and Common Pochard. Add with them a few more hundreds of waders such as Sandpipers, Black tailed Godwits, Pied Avocets, Stilts, Plovers and Dunlins.
Also in the party are all of the country's Herons and Egrets, huge roosts of Mynahs, Swallows, Martins and Wagtails . The swampland is buzzing, or for the new generation, it is rocking. Least to mention along side a huge roosting winter gull flock is dominated by Black and Brown-headed Gulls.
Then a Marsh Harrier, a bird of prey, interrupts the party and all hell breaks loose. To us it is a wonderful spectacle of chase and flight, a saga of speed, twist and turn. A sight to be seen to believe.
7.30 - 8.30 am; It is now bright and sunny, from the waterfront we move to smaller tracks over the bund. The reeds and elephant grass that lie on the either side are full of Warblers, Chats, Prinias, Munias, Shrikes, Buntings, Silverbills and others. We walk slowly in order to keep all possible sightings on record. We keep noting down, Blue throats, Babblers, Grassbirds, Weavers and Pipits…
We look for the familiar Red-necked falcon, which patrols this area, but fail to get it. The bund leads us to a huge banyan tree where a pair of Spotted Owlets always await us. I think we present ourselves as alien creatures, with our caps, jackets and equipments dangling from our necks. We both stare at each other, spell bound, marvelling at nature's creation…and then they go off to sleep, bored of us.
A sudden flutter alerts us over the tree, but on close inspection it's the flock of Yellow-footed Green pigeons alighting on the treetop. Till date I have no scientific answer to the fact that, whenever we checked our respective watches, it has always shown (more or less) 08.45 hours, when these pigeons arrive. It will always remain a
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