The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Back after a four-year gap

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 20, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Back after a four-year gap

P. Oppili

RARE VISITORS: Avocets, rare migratory birds, seen at Adyar Estuary after nearly four years. — Photo: N. Sridharan

CHENNAI: Ornithologists and bird watchers in Chennai have sighted the avocet, a migratory bird, at Adyar estuary after nearly four years.

A member of the Madras Naturalists Society, S. Chandrasekaran, sighted the birds over the last 10 days. He says avocets normally do not visit the Adyar estuary in July, which is well before the start of the migratory season.

Dr. Salim Ali, the father of Indian ornithology, described the avocet as a black and white bird which is a winter migrant. It is known to breed in Scandinavia, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. He also observed the bird breeding in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.

Normally, avocets can be sighted in Chennai during the bird migratory season (October and March) around estuaries, marshlands, jheels, lagoons, tidal creeks and mud flats, says T. Murugavel, project coordinator, Environment Monitoring and Action Initiating (EMAI).

They can be sighted in small flocks or in pairs. From a distance, avocets resemble the black-winged stilt but its upturned beak is a distinctive feature, he says.

Mr. Murugavel, who conducted a bird population study at the Theosophical Society, says the avocets were not sighted during the study period (2001- 2005) at the Adyar estuary. Available records show that it was last sighted in late 1990s. A small population used to visit the Pallikaranai marsh. At present about 30 avocets could be sighted at the Adyar estuary, he says.

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