Waiting for you to come along

Migratory birds arrive in Odisha


http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper...cle5422759.ece

Waiting for you to come along. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Finally I found them today, on the way to Srisailam abt 100 km from Hyd, in a lake that i located today. Peace after a month of search. Most of the water bodies where migratories visited last year around Hyd (200 km radius) are overflowing with water with additional human interference, so till now all are drawing blank.
Saw Pintails, Widgeons, Shovelers and possible Pochards, need to confirm it. BH geese are still missing this year. Garganies usually come late around Jan-Feb, and last to come will be flamingoes. An eventful calendar till monsoons (summer will be for animals).
And everything under the sun is alright. :001_smile:

The arrival of these birds are considered as a good omen in some places. Infact in Telineelapuram in Srikakulam district, the day these birds arrive, they consider it as auspicious. It is good that news papers report the arrival of birds and that helps in building up excitement as well as spreading awareness.

Sabyasachi sir, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Applied for leave on 13-Dec, buoyed by sightings on 08-Dec. By the time i was leaving on 13-Dec, alone, i was in two minds - should i try my luck on lakeshores or head straight to bidar to spend a day with BBs. took straight nh9 to bidar, passed sangareddy turn, that i would have taken to be with lakes, and about 20km further came to an area that would have been a magnificent wetland area less than 20 years ago. started trekking on a lake bund on right side of road. it was 2pm and sun was straight into eyes. could see only some coots and grebes here and there, about an hour later exhausted reached the other side (the better side) and squinted hard against the blazing sun. ahoy, there was a large group of Common Teals and a smaller group of SB ducks. Photography was a useless attempt against the blazing sun.

Returned to the car by the side of nh9 by 3:40 pm, tucked in some food and water, relaxed and started way back to Hyd. About less than 1 km another lake on the other side of road that looked more promising. Parked the car in one clearing and started walking on the bund. 10 mts and there were ducks, one stood out, had never seen such color pattern earlier, mind googling hard, and then realized that it was a Common Pochard. I had not seen this duck last winter. better photography chance against a setting sun. some steps ahead and a large flock of Ruddyshells. a little more further and a big flock of common pochards, male and female. My day was made. Recited a silent prayer. The other side of bund was abuzz with other birds, there was a large bird of prey, am yet Id it.

Started the return journey to home by 6:00 PM, humming contentedly.

14-Dec-13 was the family trip day, clock cicked 1:00 pm by the time could crank up the car. Road to Ananthagiri, one of few still in good condition, it’s abt 80 kms from hyd, from here two rivers emerge, Musi and Kanga. Ananthagiri is the nearmost forest area to Hyderabad, it’s a place where tiger could be found till 1950s and abt 30 kms from there, on the Karnataka side is the chincholi where elephants used to be trapped from nizam’s army. Ananthagiri and chincholi used to be a contagious forest area ranging from scrub on AP side to thick on on K’ka side. Well what’s there now, I can say one thing for sure, criminals and police, and you will get harassed from both, though I have met couple of good policemen, but more as exceptions. (by the way it’s same chincholi forest which has been declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2012, anil kumble was in the panel), I will leave forest stories here.

Reached Ananthagiri by 3:30 pm, had lunch at one of our places at the foothills, this one my kid’s favorite. Was expecting some peacocks but as the hills were echoing by the noise of holidaying, merrymaking, boozing, worshiping crowd…
Left for a little lake nearby, near Kareli village. Last year, this lake was submerged by bh geese literally. It’s filled with water to the brim. Slowly moving on the village road, suddenly we saw some ruddy shells and pintails on the lakeshore, behind a pall of cultivated fields. cheered up, I reversed to the bund of the lake, and as soon as water became visible we saw Pintails feeding in reads on the near side, one of our nearest sightings of N pintails, my kid and wife overjoyed with their first sighting of this winter. parked the car, we came out, sat on the bund making ourselves as small as possible except for the urchin who started roaming . Pintails started swimming away slowly, good god they did not take to flight, clicked some good shots as sun was behind! I started trekking cautiously through grass and reeds along the bank. After abt 10 mins spotted a group of common teals on shallow waters, male, females, chicks. Click click click for 5 mins, then I heard something rushing behind me, turned and saw the urchin with a smile. I had to smile and then reprimand him to go to safer higher ground, turned back and found most of teals missing except for a pair :sad:. In the water a pair of E. widgeon was swimming, looking astonishing in evening rays; clicked, and clicked.

I heard my wife calling out in a low voice, I hurried back, half alarmed, caught up with the kid midway. Reached the bund, found wife smiling radiantly, pointing towards lake. I looked and though that it was a pack of Widgeons. Wife mumbled red and pink beaks !! peeked through viewfinder and saw the most colorful set of ducks, i have ever seen. Mind and heart racing, by now ducks started swimming towards mid-lake, I slowly went back all the way and hid myself behind a curtain of reads. And clicked photos to my heart’s content.

On reaching home, googled, the pack was the Red-crested Pochards with few White-eyed Pochards thrown in. Now this was a much unexpected sighting.
An exceptional day, and still no BH geese :sad:

22-Dec-13, went to Srisailam, was alone . on the way stopped on the lake that i had visited on 08-Dec and had seen a large flock of pintails and widgeons, which was first sightings of this season. this time the lake was a pathetic sight with thron fencing of the land left by the retreating waters by locals, i saw a person roasting a plucked bird, i am doubtful if he had brought his own chicken there :sad:
went around the lake on backwater side, could not see anything except coots and a flock of common shanks. where did the large flock of ducks gone, god knows. saw dark glimpses of some pintails in the mid-lake. came back and went to the bund side. while walking on bund saw clearer glimpses of pintalils and widgein with sun behind me, did some photography. it was clear that next time, I will not be able to see anything on this lake and hence may not be visiting it now :sad:

Great to hear about the various wetlands you are visiting in and around hyderabad. It would be great if the GPS coordinates of the places can be recorded. Not sure how to do that without a GPS device. Any idea if the new generation phones have GPS?

dear Sabya sir, thanks for the response. Nowadays, as per me, difficulty is to shut off the gps features, as these eat into battery life. thats the first thing i did in my P510, and if P510 has gps, then probably all cameras. having said that, I can always provide the lat long coordinates from google maps, (which I use very extensively the point of doing the dry runs on it).
yes, i continue to visit the wetlands, each weekends and on holidays. this year, for the first time, there are pochards and i am finding them most often. i have located a big group of BH geese in sangareddy lake though in the most inaccessible corner of it and a fair size of flamingoes. sangareddy lake remain the most diverse with migratories, . and this beautiful lake will be converted into a shopping district soon, already all the old boards with pictures of visiting birds have been removed, some kind of Land (lake) conversion process :sad:.

i have been fighting / coping with a lot of changes for last one month, personal and on work front, some pleasant some not. so finding no time to write or upload.
at the last, i have lost the SD with nannaj pictures, i didn’t take the backup. i still get nightmares abt it. this is the 3rd sd i lost without backups in last 3 years and needless to say i keep on getting flashes of those lost pictures.
Thanks again, your words have lifted me up.

28-Dec-13. I decided to make best of the remaining time with my old car, my companion for last 13 years. Planned to visit to Ananthagiri and Kareli Lake hoping for a good birding experience. On the way, I thought of first going to Kotapally reservoir, which is about 20kms away from Ananthagiri. I had seen BH geese on its bank for the first time in Jan-12, last year BH geese didn’t visit it. We (me and kid) found the Kotapally lake to be brimming with water, its surrounding brimming with people and devoid of any avian life.
Returned to bund of Kareli Lake. There were common Pochards, common teals and pintails in good numbers. Got some good chances of clicking common teals. Last time in Kareli Lake, we had seen Red crested Pochards in good number (my first sighting of them), this day they were far off to the swampy side. There were couple of female Shovelers (or males in non breeding plumage), they came pretty near while playing their games and feeding.
Scanned the lake for BH geese but no luck. Came on to the road and started moving slowly still looking at the lake, about 500 mts away, while light started fading, all of sudden heard the unmistakable calls of BH geese. Parked the car, me and my son, started moving towards lake shore slowly and saw three BH geese on the shore feeding in the grasses. The beginning has been made.