A view of the southern side of the Perumbakkam wetland, as mirrored in a picture clicked on February 22, 2024, belabours a point that is evident even to the superficial eye. Water dynamics at the Perumbakkam wetland have changed to the point that some sections are not sufficiently filled up at the height of the monsoon; and some others witness quick water drainage. The cumulative effect of these two realities is that the migratory season is threatened with an abrupt end.
As late as the second week of February, this patch of the wetland was hosting a huge diversity of ducks and waders. And suddenly, the picture morphed into something suggesting that a giant eraser swept through the land and smudged the picture to a point of unrecognition. The waders are now largely concentrated in the northern section that retains some water.
If this pattern continues to persist in the future and the curtains come down on the migratory season prematurely, certain implications for the wetland cannot be avoided. The migrants would become instinctively alive to the truncated seasons hosted by the Perumbakkam wetland and look elsewhere for relative permanence and stability to their winter sojourn.
Little stints go into a tizzy over a patch on the southern side of the Perumbakkam wetland on February 05, 2024. By the third week of February, this patch dried up entirely. Photo: Prince Frederick | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK
Even the non-migrants such as the greater flamingoes which traditionally bring proceedings to a close when the wetland sports shallow waters would give the wetland a miss. In fact, the flamingoes are conspicuous by their absence in the Perumbakkam wetland at this time of the year. It is indeed highly possible they would give the wetland a total miss and a just a clutch of them would put in an appearance.
The ruff moves to the other side
Within the wetland itself, certain species seems to living “frenetically out of suitcases”, pitching tent in newer patches depending on water drainage.
On the Perumbakkam wetland, the ruff was habituated to the southern side (which can be viewed from Classic Farm Main Road). The bird would take to the shallows and from time to time launch into a smaller wader in an air of belligerent territoriality. And when a bigger wader (such as the black-tailed godwit) would enter the frame, it would morph into a pacifist. During recent migratory seasons, the ruff has been unable to display the full panoply of behaviours.
A flock of ruffs on the northern side of the Perumbakkam Wetland on February 22, 2024. Photo: Prince Frederick | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK
And the ruff no longer chooses its patch. Instead, it goes with the flow, or more accurately, the lack of it. The water flow dynamics at Perumbakkam wetland having changed dramatically, and the water level dropping at the rate of knots, in the last few days, the ruff has been showing up on the extreme end of the northern side (viewable from Semmozhi Salai).
Two ruffs on the southern side of the Perumbakkam wetland on February 6, 2024. By the third week of February, this patch became dry as a bone. Photo: Prince Frederick | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK
In the past, the water would fill up in the wetland and drain with a degree of uniformity that much of the extremities on the southern side will have enough shallows for the ruff to stick to till the end of the season. Not anymore.
