This Chennai visitor does not grant birders an easy audience
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A Terek Sandpiper. Photo: Sundaravel Palanivelu
The Terek Sandpiper’s forehead is a cliff dressed in feathers. The bird would still be headbutted out of a “Mr. Steep Forehead” contest. The Pied Avocet, also a Chennai migrant, is enough to dash its hopes. Placed next to the Avocet’s forehead, Mount Thor with its daunting cliff is just a hopelessly flat-lined ECG lead.
The Terek Sandpiper’s more attention-grabbing feature is its upcurved bill. Here again, the Pied Avocet is comfortably placed above the competition. The Terek Sandpiper’s nickname Avocet Sandpiper in fact settles the matter, announcing who gets the better of the other in the two-feature contest.
Get ready to see the Grey Plover putting on its breeding finery on the Indian coast
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March 04, 2021 04:17 IST
In its wintering grounds, which include the Indian coastline, there are two time-slots during the migratory season when this bird can be called Black-bellied Plover. The second opportunity is not too far away
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A Grey Plover at Pulicat on May 17, 2018. At the fag end of a complete migratory season, an adult Grey Plover will develop breeding plumage, before heading to its breeding grounds. | Photo Credit:
Rama Neelamegam
In its wintering grounds, which include the Indian coastline, there are two time-slots during the migratory season when this bird can be called Black-bellied Plover. The second opportunity is not too far away
Updated:
February 27, 2021 12:59 IST
The species’ frequency data around waterbodies and wetlands in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur particularly gives rise to this notion
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An Osprey with its kill flying over Siruthavoor lake. Photo: Rama Neelamegam
| Photo Credit:
Rama Neelamegam
The species’ frequency data around waterbodies and wetlands in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur particularly gives rise to this notion
Is the migratory Ospery more at home in Chennai and neighbouring districts than believed? That question is being asked by birdwatchers, their human-superciliums raised by the species’ frequency data.
The raptor has redefined the migratory season for itself, being consistently sighted outside that window. Observed for a reasonable passage of time, this pattern prompts a consideration: Has a small population of them become residents?