At the Sholinganallur lake now, one is often treated to a loud “uni-sound” and it comes from a huge congregation of one bird species. The lake is now supporting a battalion of large whistling teals, more popularly known as the fulvous whistling ducks. Battalion, because they often sit in a large group, resembling soldiers ready for a combat. According to K.V.R.K. Thirunaranan, the presence of the fulvous whistling teal in Indian bird habitats became significant only from 2009.
According to him, they are now very much at home in the Pallikaranai marsh. The lesser whistling teal, which is closely related to it, as the name suggests, are now occasionally found in mixed colonies with the large whistling teal in Perumbakkam wetland, which is a rare situation. Normally, the two cousins stick to “their colours”. They don’t look strikingly different from each other. While the lesser whistling teal has an orange shade in its tail, its larger cousin has a white shade.
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A family of bronze-winged jacanas at Sholinganallur lake.
For the last few weeks, this writer has been closely watching a family of bronze-winged jacanas, at the Sholinganallur lake. Each bird species displays some uniqueness in how they respond to their immediate environment and also how they go about the business of living in the wild, and surviving.
The bronze-winged jacana is polyandrous, with the female wielding control over its territory. The bronze-winged jacanas are usually alert to danger; more so, when they have raised a family. From my observation, the male bronze-winged tends to be more defensive, slipping into vegetation and going undercover, and the female often stands the ground, in response to perceived threat to their well-being. The male bronze-winged jacana is smaller than the female. And, the male bronze-winged jacana takes care of the young.
Male jacana with young one.
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Every time, we set out to “improve” a wetland or a waterbody, we have to understand we are on a razor’s edge. The possibility of going wrong with our assessment of what’s necessary, what’s superfluous and what’s noxious, is high.
Two spotbiilled ducks at Perumbakkam wetland.
At the Perumbakkam wetland, opportunities for labelling the beneficial as a blemish are many. One of them has to do with duckweed, a loose description for a variety of extremely-tiny floating vegetation. A coating of fern-green in a body of water usually suggests the presence of duckweed. From the name, we can infer that ducks feed on them and that the aquatic plant has the quality of a weed, which is uncontrolled growth. Not just ducks, other birds are also drawn to duckweed.
Two common coots feed on duckweed at Perumbakkam wetland.
At the Perumbakkam wetland, this writer noticed the common coots display a gargantuan taste for the duckweed. In certain parts of the world, the growth of duckweed is even encouraged in ponds for their economic value. There is also a theory that as it spreads like a carpet of green across a freshwater body, it can prevent mosquitoes from breeding.
At Perumbakkam, an extremely tiny variety of duckweed proliferates.
