A group of birders spotted a northern shoveller at Agasana Kere near Malyady village in Udupi district last week. This is the first recorded visit of the bird to this region.
Excited at this spotting, Mohit Shenoy (27), a software engineer, said he had posted the sighting on the websiteebird.org. The bird may have taken the Mongolia-China route to reach here, he said.
Another birder, Arun Prabhu (69), a retired engineer from a PSU, also sighted a northern shoveller at the same spot. “The female northern shoveller was amidst other whistling ducks. I took a snap of the bird when it was about to fly,” he said.
The birders were lucky again to spot a pair of northern shovellers, a male and a female, at another wetland in Malyady village, about 22 km from here. This time Mr. Shenoy along with another birder, Ramit Singal, who is an independent researcher and author of the book, ‘A Birder’s Handbook to Manipal’ spotted the pair.
According to Mr. Shenoy, there have been no records of their sighting in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. Mr. Shenoy said these birds might have got scattered from the group while migrating.
