• Any discussion that pivots around early winter migrants in Chennai would inevitably extend to the question of who gets there first. It is a question that cannot be answered conclusively, nor even convincingly, but it can lead to something that approximates to the truth.
  • There are three species that seem to breast the tape consistently ahead of the others: common sandpiper, wood sandpiper and barn swallow.
  • Ornithologist V Santharam bestows the title on the common sandpiper, adjudicating the winner on the basis of observations spanning six winters on the trot at the Adyar Estuary.
  • “Their numbers would usually be small, but you see them consistently. Later on, their numbers build up. Based on my observation, you get to see the common sandpiper as early as the third week of July. Barn swallows start coming in by August in tricles and the large numbers come in by mid-September or the second week of September,” says Santharam. “I used to live at the Santhome the beach, which helped me see these birds. I think most of the shore birds and other migrants fly along the coast.”
  • However, by August, many migrants start coming in, in small numbers, notes Santharam.
  • There could also be migrants that have stayed back from the last season and are mistaken for early arrivers.