Here we present arrival patterns of some of the most-reported species: the Barn Swallow, Brown Shrike, White Wagtail and Western Yellow Wagtail.

Like in previous summaries each sighting is shown as a vertical black line.

As you can appreciate from the above illustration, Barn Swallows and Brown Shrikes arrive around late July/early August and nearly all of them leave by April. The wagtails normally arrive in early September and usually are gone by April-end. (This summary has only been possible thanks to your contributions!)

Another extract from Douglas Dewar’s A Bird Calendar for Northern India, published in 1916 in which he describes the month of May:

* Also called: Common Hawk-cuckoo.

# Also called: Eurasian Golden Oriole.

Taken, with grateful thanks, from Project Gutenberg.

Where do you live?
I live in Amravati in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Melghat Tiger Reserve, a well-known protected area is in Amravati district.

When did you start watching birds?
I started my birdwatching systematically in 1997. Before that I was largely a trekker who used to visit forests to see wildlife for adventure.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
While there was no person in particular who mentored me, but after getting in touch with my birder friend Dr. Raju Kasambe, my birding became more serious and systematic. Since then I have spend lots of time birding with Raju.

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
It is difficult to isolate a single event, but I particularly cherish one incident when I visited Malkhed Reservoir for a weekend trip with my family. There wasn’t any plan for birding but my binoculars, field guide and camera are always in my sack. I was wandering around the lake with my 8-year-old daughter Rajeshwari. All of a sudden my attention was attracted by a white-coloured bird among a flock of Ruddy Shelduck. Upon observing it more carefully I discovered that the white-coloured bird was a Common Shelduck! I was thrilled because that was the first sighting of this species for Maharashtra.

What are your favourite migrants?
I have a lot of favourites among migratory birds but perhaps Black Stork and cranes are on top of the list.

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
My favourite birding spots to watch migratory birds are Malkhed Reservoir and Chhatri Lake near Amravati, although I like birding in Melghat and anywhere in the Satpuda Range.

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Today in India the environment is at loggerheads with developmental activities. We want progress; however, it is coming at the cost of destroying natural habitat and resources. My suggestion to birdwatchers is: Don’t limit yourself to only birdwatching and bird photography; do make an effort to also study the habitat and threats to birds, and come forward to speak out for the protection of bird habitat.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
Nowadays there is a need for lakhs of hands for conserving nature and wildlife, to create intimacy for nature in every person of this country and the first step towards this is to become a birdwatcher. If birds are safe, then forests are safe, and when forests are safe then we can survive.

Any other information that you’d like to share with MigrantWatchers?
By profession I am a laboratory technician at Amravati University but I have been interested in nature and birding for the past 18 years. I have been nominated as Secretary for Wildlife and Environment Conservation Society (WECS), Amravati, which is a society of of concerned individuals working for environmental awareness and research. I have done my Ph.D. on “Butterflies of Satpuda”. Presently I am working on the Forest Owlet and other owl species in Satpuda Range. I am also working as a State Coordinator of IBCN as well as Honorary Wildlife Warden of Amravati district. I am also actively working for Maharashtra Pakshimitra and we have recently hosted the 26th Maharashtra Pakshimitra Sammelan (Birdwatchers meet). I also encourage fellow birdwatchers to share their sightings on MigrantWatch.

You can see Jayant Wadatkar’s MigrantWatch contributions here.

The March 2013 issue of the monthly round-up of the latest news at MigrantWatch has been sent to all participants. If you are registered with us, but haven’t received this email, please check your spam folder; and add mw@migrantwatch.in to your address book. Do send us a message if you have any questions.

Does the arrival of the Pied Cuckoo herald the onset of the monsoon? The Pied Cuckoo Campaign was launched in 2009 to collect information to assess this age-old belief.

More than 600 sightings of this wonderful migrant have been contributed by over 200 MigrantWatchers so far; the first sighting dates among these were compared to monsoon arrival, as available with the Indian Meteorological Department (see the graph alongside). Each dot shows the earliest Pied Cuckoo report (after 1 May) for a broad location (an area roughly 200 Km across).

The results are fairly clear: Pied Cuckoos arrive before the monsoon in most parts of central and northern India (they are resident in southern India). You can see this from the pattern that most dots in the picture to the right are below the dotted horizontal line.

But the degree to which the arrival of the Pied Cuckoo precedes the monsoon varies from place to place, as can be seen from the scatter of the dots within each year. And even for the same general location, this varies from year to year (see how the coloured dots are in different places in different years).

What appears to be happening is that, where the monsoon arrives early, Pied Cuckoos arrive a few days before monsoon onset; but where the monsoon arrives late, the cuckoos arrive well in advance of monsoon onset.

So, overall, the old belief is true, and Pied Cuckoos tend to arrive before the monsoon — but to different degrees, depending on when the monsoon begins at each place.

Also see this article on Pied Cuckoo migration.

By Devinder Singh Dhadwal

Situated about 250 km from Shimla and 190 km from Chandigarh and nestled in the picturesque Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh, Pong is one of the largest manmade wetlands of northern India. This huge wetland came into existence in 1974 after the construction of Pong Dam across the River Beas. Fed by waters from the Dhauladhar mountain range, the reservoir – also known as Maharana Pratap Sagar – forms a lake that is 42 km long and 19 km wide. It has a catchment area of 12,500 sq km that extends over the districts of Kangra, Mandi and Kullu. The area of the waterbody varies seasonally – ranging from about 125 sq km in summer to around 220 sq km in the monsoons.

Pong has a variety of habitats in its fold – ranging from deep waters to marshlands. This, together with its geographic location in the foot of the Himalayas, makes Pong a very important wintering ground for migratory birds – including some rare species – from Central and Northern Asia. This wetland is the first major stopover reserve for birds migrating from the trans-Himalayan zone during winters when the wetlands in the Europe and North and Central Asia become frozen. Flocks of waterfowl that breed in the northern areas arrive during winter (October–March) to Pong to winter to more congenial climatic conditions.

Till date more than 400 species of birds have been recorded from Pong. The latest addition to the list (418th) is also one of the rarest birds to be seen in the Indian Subcontinent: On 29th January 2013, a pair of Whooper Swans was sighted and photographed. It may be noted that the last record of this elusive swan from India was way back in 1900 by E H Aitken (on Beas River) and Gen Osborne (at Talwara). Whooper Swan, the national bird of Finland (also featured on the Finnish 1-Euro coin), is a rare migrant to India from Central Asia and Europe. Like Sarus Cranes, the Whooper Swans are known to pair for life and are one of the heaviest flying birds with an average body weight ranging from 8.2 to 11.4 kg. The news of the Whooper Swan, drew tremendous interest from ornithologists all across the country. Another interesting bird that was recently sighted at Pong was the Ruddy-breasted Crake in the periphery of the Pong Dam wetland for the first time.

Pong also has the distinction of being the first Ramsar site of Himachal. It is, without doubt, one of the most critical sites for bird migration in India. An estimated 1.50 lakh migratory birds visit Pong to roost and feed every winter! The scale can be judged by a recent survey wherein huge numbers of species such as the Bar-Headed Goose (34,000), Northern Pintail (21,000), Common Pochard (12,000), Tufted Pochard (8,000), and Common Teal (6,800) were observed.

MigrantWatcher Devinder Singh Dhadwal is an Assistant Conservator of Forests with the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department. He is a passionate ornithologist who has been working on conservation efforts in Pong for more than 10 years in his capacity of Wildlife Warden. Also a keen photographer, DS Dhadwal has authored a book titled Wild Wings: Pong and its Birds.

For more details on Pong please write to DS Dhadwal at dd123.singh[at]gmail[dot]com

Douglas Dewar presents a rich account of the bird life in April in his classic A Bird Calendar for Northern India, published in 1916. Here are a few extracts:

* Also called: Ruddy Shelduck.

# Also called: Eurasian Cuckoo.

Taken, with grateful thanks, from Project Gutenberg.

Where do you live?
Nowhere! My hometown is Madurai. Actually, I travel a lot, and currently I am travelling throughout the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu.

When did you start watching birds?
I was first introduced to birdwatching in 1998 by Mr. Relton during my post-graduation.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
Though I started serious birding on my own in Point Calimere, using the pocket guide by Grimmett, I am currently mentored by Dr. Ranjit Daniels from whom I have learnt a lot.

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
My most memorable birding experience was with Dr. Balachander of BNHS. On that occasion he showed us 7 species of cuckoos in a few minutes around Thambusamy Illam, Point Calimere!

What are your favourite migrants?
I don’t have any favourites, but I always eagerly await the arrival of the Blue-tailed Bee-eaters from the Himalayas

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
I prefer any scrub jungle to watch birds.

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Before picking up a camera, pick up binoculars and learn to identify bird species! Then you can go for the camera. I have seen people roaming around with a camera and asking for bird IDs even for the common birds. Buy a camera after due consultation as you need a good zoom. Don’t just learn to identify birds, move ahead learn more about their behaviour and communication.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
The sheer diversity of birds is mind-boggling. I was stunned to see so much variety when I was reading the Handbook of the Birds of the World in the library of the Bombay Natural History Society. You should protect birds just for their sheer diversity, and the joy of watching them feed, play, roost and mate. When you learn to appreciate the myriad functions they perform (building nest, hunting for insects, communication) with their small brain and limited structures you begin to love them. Wouldn’t you want to protect something you love?

Any other information that you’d like to share with MigrantWatchers?
Do not bluff! Report what you have seen in the field and nothing more than that. Don’t mock when someone identifies a bird wrongly. Learn to identify birds by their call. Record bird calls and listen to them repeatedly. Enjoy bird watching and don’t do it for the sake of fame.

You can see Patrick David’s MigrantWatch contributions here.

By Mousumi Ghosh (with inputs from Umesh Srinivasan)

Tips for Identification

If you’re keen to start leaf warbler watching, you just need an ear for it! You can start with the commonly encountered leaf warbler species in our backyard like Hume’s Warbler (in North India) and Greenish Warbler (in South India) and fortunately, both are extremely vocal. Anytime I want to hear a Hume’s Warbler in winter here in Dehradun, I just have to strain my ears a bit and sure enough I can hear one (yes, it’s that common during winter in North India). Both are territorial in winter and call incessantly guarding their precious trees from the canopy. So, let’s get acquainted with some of the commoner species which visit us in the plains in winter (Here is an illustration to help you with some of the terms commonly used while describing warblers):

Hume’s Warbler (Phylloscopus humei):  One of the commonest leaf warblers, it has an overall dull colour with greenish upperparts and off-white underparts. Other features include a long supercilium, weak/absent crown-stripe, prominently pale tertial edges, no white margins to the tail, one prominent pale wing bar (just a faint vestige of the second wing bar may be visible). The darker legs and lower mandibles are diagnostic. Hume’s is among the smaller of leaf warblers; it breeds near the tree-line and is partial to birch forests in the summer. In the winter it is one of the commonest species found all over the plains of North India. It’s solitary in winter and calls incessantly from the crowns of trees. Call: A repeated, disyllabic ringing tiss-yip, buzzy wheezing tzzzeeeeeu, often given interspersed with calls.

Greenish Warbler (Phylloscopus trochiloides): A common winter migrant in peninsular India, it is one of the larger leaf warblers. It has greyish-green upper parts and off-white underparts. Absence of coronal stripe, yellowish-white supercilium and a single wing bar are other features which help distinguish this species.

During the breeding season, Greenish Warbler occurs close to the tree-line in mixed-conifer forests and rhododendrons. In winter, it is territorial and partial to the canopy, from the top of which it calls incessantly to defend its precious territory. Call:  a disyllabic tisswit or chiswee.

Lemon-rumped Warbler (Phylloscopus chloronotus): This tiny little leaf warbler gets its name from its pale yellowish rump which is frequently exposed as it hovers at the edge of leaves to pick arthropod prey. It’s a rather active bird with olive green upperparts, whitish underparts, dark bill and pale legs. The head is rather distinctive with a prominent pale yellow crown stripe, a broad yellowish supercilium and a very dark eye-stripe which broadens behind the eye and hooks under the ear coverts. Typically two yellowish wing bars are visible, the lower one being larger and more prominent. This species is an altitudinal migrant, spending the summer in the mixed coniferous, oak and rhododendron forests and retreating to the foothills in winter where it joins mixed-species flocks to forage mostly in the mid-canopy and undergrowth. More than two may be part of the same flock, daintily hovering around the vegetation and is an absolute treat to watch! Call: A high-pitched tsip or uist.

Apart from the above there are a number of other species of Phylloscopus warbler that can be observed in the Indian subcontinent. Most of these species migrate over long distances to winter in the Indian plains and peninsular India, some show an altitudinal migration, and a couple of them are resident throughout the year. Here is a very handy key for their visual identification compiled by Umesh Srinivasan.

This concludes our three-part series on Phylloscopus warblers. We hope that these articles helped you in identifying the main species in this difficult group and also provided interesting information about the ecology of leaf warblers. We’d like to know if you liked this series and if you’d like us to run more such articles in the future on the MigrantWatch blog. Please do send in your comments and feedback at mw@migrantwatch.in. 

You can read Part I and Part II in this series of articles on leaf warblers.

Since 2007 MigrantWatch has brought together hundreds of birders across India to pool their observations of migratory birds. Over the years, our enthusiastic participants have collectively contributed more than 20,000 records of nearly 250 bird species. The idea of collecting all this information in one place is to document patterns of bird migration in the Indian subcontinent.

To mark the completion of 5 years of MigrantWatch, we have put together a brief summary of the migration patterns that are emerging. We hope you will enjoy it, and will tell your other birding friends about it too.

You can download a soft copy of the summary here [PDF, 2.9 MB; right-click to save it]. We have also printed a set of copies, and if you would like a hardcopy of the summary, just mail your postal address to us at mw@migrantwatch.in, and we will be happy to send you a copy.

A big ‘Thank You!’ to all participants and contributors, and we look forward to working with you for the next five years!