MigrantWatcher Subhash Gogi spotted and photographed a ringed Demoiselle Crane at Khichan village, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan on the afternoon of 6th March 2014. The ring on the bird was red-coloured and bore the number 667.

Further inquiries revealed that the crane was originally ringed in Mongolia on 24th July 2013.

We encourage MigrantWatchers to keep a lookout for ringed birds, as they provide vital information about the fascinating phenomenon of bird migration, which is still poorly understood.

Photo: Subhash Gogi

The Asian Waterbird Count started in 1987, and many birders (of a particular generation!) were initiated into bird counting and monitoring through this project. In the early years, the AWC was very popular in India, but it then went through a bit of a slump. In the past year or two, however, it is gaining momentum again, and we encourage you to take part.

Here is more background information about the AWC. To take part you simply visit a wetland and count the birds you see there. So that there is some consistency in dates, the AWC recommends that you carry out your counts between Saturday 11 Jan, and Sunday 26 Jan 2014, although counts from any date in January are welcome.

Before you plan your counts, please contact the AWC Coordinator for your state, who will be able to provide more guidance. You can take a look at the AWC India Data Entry Form as well: scroll down the page to find the link to the excel file.

The main webpage of the AWC is here, and linked here is the text of a message sent by AWC coordinator Taej Mundkur.

If you do take part in the AWC this year (which we strongly recommend!), do drop us an email or leave a comment below.

MigrantWatch reached yet another landmark with the logging of the 25,000th record — a White Wagtail by Nil N. Mohite. Remarkably, this sighting was from Amravati (Maharashtra) again! It may be noted that Amravati also has the distinction of reporting the 10,000th, 15,000th, as well as the 20,000th observation on MigrantWatch!

Hearty congratulations to everyone from the MigrantWatch community who contributed to this effort!

October is a season when autumnal migrants flood the Indian subcontinent. Douglas Dewar beautifully summarises this month in his A Bird Calendar for Northern India, published in 1916.

Taken, with grateful thanks, from Project Gutenberg.

September is considered a very important month in the migration calendar, and is so wonderfully described by Douglas Dewar in his A Bird Calendar for Northern India, published in 1916.

* Now considered as a subspecies of White Wagtail

# Current name: Blue-fronted Redstart Phoenicurus frontalis

## Current name: Common Quail Coturnix coturnix

@ Current name: Common Teal Anas crecca

Taken, with grateful thanks, from Project Gutenberg.

In continuation with our presentation of present arrival patterns of our most-reported species, we now feature Black Redstart, Red-throated Flycatcher, Asian Paradise Flycatcher and Common Stonechat.

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

It is apparent from the above chart that Black Redstart and Common Stonechat arrive in mid-September and generally leave by March-end. Red-throated Flycatchers arrive slightly in late September and return by April-end. The Paradise Flycatcher, which is an intra-subcontinental migrant, has records spread over the entire year. (Please note that this summary has only been possible thanks to your contributions!)

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.

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