Ducks found dabbling in Chennai could be from Russia

CHENNAI: The bird watchers who had trekked to the Perumbakkam marshland last week hoping to spot a few rare species couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They were thrilled after a closer look confirmed that the half-a-dozen frolicking in the water body were dabbling ducks or gadwalls , migrants capable of flying more than 5,000km, but very rarely spotted in south India.

Data of birds ringed at Bharatpur sanctuary in Rajasthan has shown that gadwalls ( Mareca strepera ) come from as far away as Central Asia and even northern Russia , said S Balachandran, deputy director of ornithology, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), who is ringing migratory birds at Point Calimere sanctuary in Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district.

Available data shows that gadwalls breed in the northern areas of Europe (Lake Chany in Russia) and Central Asia (Lake Tenghiz in Kazakhstan and Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan). The Indian Bird Migration Atlas says these birds normally begin arriving in the country in late September- mid-October, with the numbers reaching a peak in November. They start leaving in the middle of March and the majority leave by April.

These winter migrants, ornithologists say, rarely move beyond central India. While one was spotted at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh more that 25 years ago, another was seen at Point Calimere. “So far we have not ringed the bird species in the sanctuary,” said Balachandran, who is also co-author of ‘Indian Bird Migration Atlas’.

V Santharam, director of Institute of Bird Studies at Rishi Valley in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, recalled seeing a gadwall at Sriharikota in the 1990s and said there had been no sighting in the Adyar estuary or Pallikaranai marshland so far. The reason, he said, could be because few could go deep into the Pallikaranai marshland or Adyar creek until recently to record sightings. And, very few had access to sophisticated binoculars, telescopes or monoscopes that enthusiasts now are armed with, he said.

Nature Trust founder K V R K Thirunaranan whose team spotted and photographed the gadwalls in Perumbakkam marshland said it was mainly because the migratory season was coming to an end and smaller water bodies were drying up fast. “The migrants seen at Perumbakkam last week are not there this week,” he said.

A bird usually found in open wetlands such as prairies or steppe lakes, grasslands or marshes with dense fringing vegetation, it forages for plants with the head submerged, it said.