Migratory Birds Make an Early Visit to Winter Homes in Capital - Article on The New Indian Express Newspaper about TNHS wetland bird monitoring (October 07 2014)

Migrant birds are here already, says a group of bird watchers from the city.The migratory birds usually arrive around December, but the bird enthusiasts from Travancore Natural History Society (TNHS) say that they have already spotted some visitors in Poovar and Veli as early as October.

Dr Kalesh S, co-founder of TNHS, says that this is not very unusual as this could be the first wave of migrants.“Last time, we had spotted rare birds like Saunders’s tern and Little tern in Veli. Those haven’t arrived yet. In the coming days, we plan to go on more birding trips to Poovar and Veli. It will be a good season for four months now.”

 

In Poovar, they spotted black and brown headed gulls, great crested terns, sandwich terns, flocks of sanderlings, greater and lesser sand plovers, grey plovers, Kentish plovers and little ringed plovers. Plovers and sanderlings were spotted in Veli. Birds which breed in countries as far as Siberia land on Poovar, as it is an estuary.

Imagine the variety of fish and feed, when fresh water streams meet the sea. According to Dr Kalesh, the birds are led primarily by the availability of food.

“The season could get delayed in Punchakiri, as the monsoon flood has damaged all crops. Akkulam, which used to be a hot spot of migratory birds, might be seeing lesser number of birds, as water hyacinth has damaged the ecosystem,” he says.