Migration marvels of autumn have engaged the human creativeness since time immemorial and there are quite a few references to be present in Indian spiritual texts and cultural lore. Modern scientific research aimed toward ascertaining the migratory routes of birds that winter within the Indian sub-continent present fascinating insights to Nature’s nice thriller and reveal astonishing fowl capabilities. Studies help wildlife conservationists in figuring out, and therefore preserving, websites/wetlands utilized by migratory birds for a quick cease over interval to “refuel” for meals and relaxation earlier than they fly additional to their vacation spot for a chronic winter sojourn.

Trapping migratory birds and attaching rings to them was the migration examine protocol initiated by the famend Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in 1927 in India. This was adopted by the arrival of attaching satellite tv for pc tags / geolocators which offered correct knowledge on migratory flights. While not all birds underneath examine might be tagged with costly satellite tv for pc trackers, coloured flags with alphabet / numerical codes had been hooked up to legs of birds for straightforward identification within the discipline by even the non-scientists, such because the rising, vibrant tribe of photographers and birders with binoculars.

Sightings of tagged birds within the discipline by such “citizen scientists” contributes actual worth to the realm of migration research because it enhances the “surveillance arc” of devoted scientists. These sightings are reported to a nodal organisation, such because the BNHS in India, derived a lot pleasure. When birds had been tagged solely with rings bearing encrypted numbers, hunters performed a job in reporting them to migration examine facilities. However, the possibilities of resighting a non-satellite or flagged / ringed fowl may be very low, 2-3 per cent, and in some instances might take 20 years.

Hundreds of birds had been ringed at Harike within the early Nineteen Eighties underneath the tutelage of BNHS’s legendary birdman Dr. Salim Ali. According to a analysis paper introduced by the late SA Hussain, a number one affiliate of Dr. Ali, outstanding recoveries had been fabricated from birds ringed within the Harike winters of 1980-’85. “There was a restoration of a Gray heron ringed at Harike on March 6, 1981, and recovered 1,700 km away within the Balkash lake of (the erstwhile) USSR inside a span of 37 days. One Tufted duck ringed on January 31, 1981, and one other on 24 February, 1981, had been recorded within the USSR throughout May 1981 — 4,600 and 4,300 km away from Harike respectively. A coot (a seemingly clumsy flyer) traveled 2,700 km to Omsk (USSR) the place it was recovered three months after its ringing at Harike,” acknowledged Hussain’s paper.

In line with such thrilling, ‘probability of a lifetime’ finds, fowl photographer from Patiala, Paramnoor S. Antaal, captured on October 15, 2022, a Black-tailed godwit with double white flags on its proper leg and a hoop on its left leg at a wetland fashioned by flooded fields close to village Jabbomajra. A cropped, close-up of Antaal’s picture confirmed that one of many flags had a code, F78, inscribed in crimson. Globally categorised by the IUCN as a “Near-threatened” species, godwits are waders feeding alongside shores. Those godwits that migrate to India in winter come from summer time breeding grounds that lie in Western Eurasia comparable to Kazakhstan. Punjab lies within the path of what’s termed the West Asian-East African Flyway,… a particular route for migratory odysseys.

Eager to establish the antecedents of the tagged godwit photographed by Antaal, I despatched within the observations to the BNHS and drew a immediate response. “From the preliminary records, I can tell you that this bird was most probably ringed in Chilika Lake, Odisha, by the BNHS and based on the placement of the ring (left leg), the bird should have been ringed in an odd year, such as 2017, 2019, 2021 etc. The BNHS has been assigned different color codes for birds tagged in different regions of India. So, for South India, we tag birds with one black flag with white inscriptions on the leg. For Bangladesh, they use the double yellow flags for birds migrating along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Color codes allow us to immediately ascertain where the observed bird was tagged,” Tuhina Katti, Scientist-C, Wetlands Program, BNHS, informed this author.

There are different notable monitoring data of the godwit. According to the seminal quantity, Waders of the Indian Subcontinent, by HS Sangha, “One godwit ringed in October 1969 (at Bharatpur) was recovered in September 1979 from Balykykol Lake, Kazakhstan.” Very just lately, the BNHS struck a gold mine of migratory knowledge. A godwit was fitted with a satellite tv for pc tag by the BNHS in March this 12 months on the Thane creek, Mumbai. The satellite tv for pc tracked the godwit’s flight of 5,000 km to Siberia over 47 days with the fowl reaching its summer time residence on June 11, 2022. The similar godwit returned to Thane creek on July 17, 2022, taking simply 5 days to journey 4,200 km.

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