The Grey Pelicans also known as the Spot-billed Pelicans have made Atapaka near Kailaluru in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh their permanent home.
After doing the vanishing act in mid-1990s from Kolleru Lake this large birds re-appeared in this fresh water body first at Atapaka in 2005. They have been leaving this erstwhile nesting ground, but have made it their permanent dwelling.
The Grey Pelican is not known to migrate across the seas like the other migratory birds at Atapaka, but during the dry season they move to the Gangatic Plains. This year however, the birds built over 80 nests in Atapaka and did not leave in summer season too.
Former Assistant Conservator of Forests P. Gracious told The Hindu on Wednesday that the Forest Department has recorded about 80 nests in Atapaka. While the Painted Storks have selected Penumaka Lanka in the heart of the lake to roost, the Pelicans seem to have preferred Atakapa because of the 300-acre tank that is in the control of the Forest Department. Pelicans which are large birds prefer large stretches of water close by.
A couple of years ago they seemed to haunt a 30-acre stretch between Atapaka and Komatilanka villages that acquired the name “Pittala Doddi”.
The Lake is a notified Sanctuary and a Ramsar site. Every year the Pelicans have been returning in the season, but in the past couple of years there has been a subtle change in the behaviour of these birds.
The continuous presence of the pelicans is emboldening other water birds, which usually migrate, to stay longer at the lake. The Black-Tailed Godwit, a wader, which breeds in Iceland and eastern part of Russia and Central Asia visits the Lake in November to feed, rest and leaves without fail in February.
This year, however, the Godwits overstayed for three months. Mr. Gracious said that he photographed a flock of them on May 13. The Kolleru Lake is an important wetland of the Central Asian Flyway. As many as 257 species of water birds have been recorded in the country and 81 of them are migratory.
