To be a birdwatcher, you need time [Pune] by Nair, Chitra 12 Next PUNE: "To force the pace and never

to be still is not the way of those who study birds..." wrote poet Nissim Ezekiel. And this is a fact. To be a birdwatcher, y ou need time, and enormous patience. As the winter finally sets in the city, it's time to bring out those binoculars and that high-resolution camera, as migratory birds return to make Pune their ho me for the next few months. "There's no specific time to go birdwatching, since birds can be seen anywhere a t any given point of the day," says city-based ornithologist Satish Pande. But y es, if it's the multitude of migratory birds you want to visit, it's the best ti me of the year. "The migratory birds start arriving in the city from as early as the end of October. They do not come together in hordes. Different varieties ar rive at different times till March," he explains. Of the over 1,100 species of birds that can be found in India, around 15 per cen t of them are migratory. "In Pune, on the other hand, we can find over 500 speci es with about 15 per cent of them being migratory," says Pande. While the early migrants are the seabirds like gulls and terns who comes to the coastal areas li ke Alibaug, waders and ducks follow them. Cranes and raptors are the latecomers. In the city, these birds have several hotspots, including Pashan lake, Kawdi, Bh igwan Veer dam on the Nira river, Khadakwasla, Saswad, Purandar, Alandi, Sinhaga d valley, Tamhini ghat, and Lonavla-Khandala. "Right now, most of these areas are filled with the birds. You can see flamingos at Bhigwan and the bar-headed geese, who arrived from the Tibetan highlands, at the Veer dam," says birdwatcher Rahul Rao. Apart from the regular birds, even some rare birds can be seen in and around Pun e, says Pande. "The rough-legged buzzard, the Japanese buzzard and the European roller are some very rarely seen birds which were sighted in places around Pune, " says Pande. But, there are also the regulars like the bar-headed geese, whose numbers have r educed alarmingly, the brahminy duck, snipes, godwits, shanks, plowers and also raptors like the booted eagle, steppe eagle, osprey, harriers and also the short -eared owl, which is the only migratory owl. "These birds are again seen depending on their habitat like the ducks can be see n near wetlands, small insect and fruit eaters like warblers, leaf warblers, bun tings, rose finches in forested areas across the Western ghats and other birds l ike the chat, wheatears, goshawk, raptor, rock thrush in arid and semi-arid area s like Saswad, Bhigwan and Purandar. Raptors and cranes on the other hand can be sighted in agricultural areas," says Pande. Amateur birdwatcher Pramod Deshpande, who recently co-authored the book 'Birds o f Lonavla-Khandala' with Satish Pande, Vivek Vishwasrao and Niranjan Sant, says, "This year, watch out for the ultramarine flycatcher and the paradise flycatche r, of which the former is quite rarely seen." The best time to go watching bird is early morning and the evening, when most bi rds feed. "While insect-feeders can be seen in early mornings, the best time to

visit the fruit-eaters is the evening. Raptors are seen in the afternoons when t he air is hot, as it's these warm currents of air that they glide on," says Pand e. Copyright Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited Jan 2, 2009 Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved