Bar-headed geese - from the bouquet of past winter

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Nikon P510, 1/1000, F5.9, 252 mm, ISO-125, hand held.
Shot at a lake near Sangareddy, Medak, AP.

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Lovely composition and colors nicely captured. There seems a small tilt in the horizon which can be corrected in PP.

Nice Eye contact and loved the symmetry of the sitting bird and the pair,

Thanks for sharing

Rajan

[Shyamala Kumar]

This indeed a very welome scene of bird activity in Andhra Pradesh. Nice capture of three birds together.Beautiful plumage details. Could you give me the exact location of this lake.?TFS

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice to see this from Sangareddy.I have never been there. Seems to be a good birding site. Good eye contact. Did u try framing only the pair togather.

TFS
Roopak

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Hi Rajan, Thanks for the encouraging feedback. I completely missed the tilt.
Hi Shamala and Roopak, the area surrounding Hyderabad, within radius of 200 km, is indeed a paradise for watching migratory birds in winters, though we have to look for lakes away from the pubic glare and malevolent care of forest department. These two have completely finished off Manjeera and Pocharam bird sanctuaries.
This lake was my favorite haunt last winter, it is just beyond S’reddy town, is displayed with name, Mahboob sagar, in Google maps. The Bund side is infested with people and garbage, I was going to the farthest backwater side. Migraroies sighted were Pintails, Garganey, BH geese, Widgeons, Shoveler, Teal, Arctic tern, Flamingoes, Redshanks etc.
There was narrow strip of scrubs on backwater side that may have helped these birds and numerous peafowls, the whole area has been mowed down this summer using excavators, I assume, to make it a farmland. Not sure, whether birds will return this winter. :sad:

[Shyamala Kumar]

Thanks for the information Subhash.In comparison to Karnataka Andhra has done little if not nothing to conserve its biodiversity and national parks .Andhra has the biggest tiger sanctuary but there is no information regarding its ground realities.Naxal activities ,the never ending fight for Telengana and also plain ignorance has vitiated the very fabric of this second largest state with unbounded natural resources.Its the youth like you who are its only hope.

[Subhash Shrivastava]

You are right Shaymala. just returned from Bidar, took a different route today, through Manahalli. Just 20 Kms inside Karnataka, I got the sight of Blackbucks near a village. It's the same terrain on either side of Border; blackbucks were there on AP side also 10 years back. Now whole population in AP has been reduced such that seeing it in open has become an extreme rarity, except in Rollapadu. And it still remains the state animal.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good to know about the appearance of bar headed geese in that area. I always wonder how some bar headed geese go to Bharatpur/Delhi in North, Chilika in east, some in pune/west and a few in south. Wonder whether the same bird goes to south one year and east another year and how they choose the place. We know that when one wetland is devastated or doesn't have water one year, they move to another wetland. How do they know?

Unfortunately, everywhere wetlands are vanishing due to human greed. Illegal dumping of garbage is a big problem. The garbage pollutes the water and makes it unfit for use of birds and also fills up the wetland. Later someone comes and starts cultivating. We need a detailed map or note of all wetlands in India.

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Dear Sabyasachi; the bar-headed geese visit around Hyderabad lakes (approx.. 100 kms away from city ) every year. this part of AP, also called telnagana has relatively less population pressure, though I cannot say something about poaching, grabbing forest lands etc.