Immigrants Are Welcome
Winter means many things to different people.
Bitterly cold nights, warm soups, woolen gear, cosy evenings spent by the fire, lazy mornings idled away under warm razai, foggy days, delayed flights.
Winter's all of that for me as well, but what defines the joy of the season is the arrival of our avian visitors-winter migrants who arrive from harsher climes, navigating through unknown vistas.
From lands faraway and exotic-Afghanistan, China, Siberia, Russia, Pakistan to name just a few.
The mysteries of migration fascinates me.
I often wonder from where they come and how, I admire their skills and tenacity, travel as they do from thousands of miles away, braving harsh conditions to arrive at their chosen warm destination.
But it also saddens me that we do not always extend them a warm welcome-that the wetland which has been their winter home for years have now been paved over by a shopping mall, multiplex or any such urban monstrosity.
Still, India is a birder's delight with over 1,300 birds-and counting.
Of these about 300 are migrants of some kind or the other.
Come winter, millions of winged visitors crowd our skies.
Most of these are water birds-ducks, storks, geese, waders, cranes-though of course there are those, which inhabit dry land, like the tiny warblers that defy identification, at least to an amateur like me! I remember an incident on a cold December evening, one of those things which sparked my interest in birds.
I was returning from work, had been a particularly bad day, and I was cross and tired.
Caught in an endless traffic jam-and even more irritable-I happened to look up to notice that the sky was obscured by swarms of black that gracefully glided across the like huge ribbons swaying in the skies.
It was aerial traffic at its most bizarre.
Initially, I could not understand what it was, I looked again, intently, to see Common Starlings-thousands of them, flying in from western Siberia, arriving to their winter home in India-in this case-Ahemdabad.
Imagine tiny birds, no more than a few inches long, undertaking such a huge journey, against all odds, and yet somersaulting, turning wheels in the air, I imagine, in joy, as they are wont to for reasons unknown.
And my heart soared...
I mention the starlings for I would like to stress that bird-watching can be enjoyed at most places, in your garden, the little pond by the roadside, in the park down the road, you just need the eyes to look.
It is not an activity limited to the twitcher, a name for those maniacally obsessed with ticking birds off their list.
Given here are some of my favourites, just a few of the best places to visit to watch, enjoy and admire both the visiting and resident avians.
Bitterly cold nights, warm soups, woolen gear, cosy evenings spent by the fire, lazy mornings idled away under warm razai, foggy days, delayed flights.
Winter's all of that for me as well, but what defines the joy of the season is the arrival of our avian visitors-winter migrants who arrive from harsher climes, navigating through unknown vistas.
From lands faraway and exotic-Afghanistan, China, Siberia, Russia, Pakistan to name just a few.
The mysteries of migration fascinates me.
I often wonder from where they come and how, I admire their skills and tenacity, travel as they do from thousands of miles away, braving harsh conditions to arrive at their chosen warm destination.
But it also saddens me that we do not always extend them a warm welcome-that the wetland which has been their winter home for years have now been paved over by a shopping mall, multiplex or any such urban monstrosity.
Still, India is a birder's delight with over 1,300 birds-and counting.
Of these about 300 are migrants of some kind or the other.
Come winter, millions of winged visitors crowd our skies.
Most of these are water birds-ducks, storks, geese, waders, cranes-though of course there are those, which inhabit dry land, like the tiny warblers that defy identification, at least to an amateur like me! I remember an incident on a cold December evening, one of those things which sparked my interest in birds.
I was returning from work, had been a particularly bad day, and I was cross and tired.
Caught in an endless traffic jam-and even more irritable-I happened to look up to notice that the sky was obscured by swarms of black that gracefully glided across the like huge ribbons swaying in the skies.
It was aerial traffic at its most bizarre.
Initially, I could not understand what it was, I looked again, intently, to see Common Starlings-thousands of them, flying in from western Siberia, arriving to their winter home in India-in this case-Ahemdabad.
Imagine tiny birds, no more than a few inches long, undertaking such a huge journey, against all odds, and yet somersaulting, turning wheels in the air, I imagine, in joy, as they are wont to for reasons unknown.
And my heart soared...
I mention the starlings for I would like to stress that bird-watching can be enjoyed at most places, in your garden, the little pond by the roadside, in the park down the road, you just need the eyes to look.
It is not an activity limited to the twitcher, a name for those maniacally obsessed with ticking birds off their list.
Given here are some of my favourites, just a few of the best places to visit to watch, enjoy and admire both the visiting and resident avians.
Source...