General

• Photos. You can add up to 4 photos to accompany each of your sightings, no matter when you reported them. Each photo has a public URL, so that you can share it with your friends, who can then comment. A photo gallery allows you to view and comment on any photo uploaded to MigrantWatch.
• New species guide. The species guide is now improved, with easier navigation.
• New sidebars. In the sighting form and several other pages, you can quickly perform searches or see new material by clicking on the links in the sidebar on the right.
• Sighting page. Each sighting has a unique page, which gives details of the sighting, including any photos. Any registered user can comment on the sighting. Click here for an example. A unique URL makes sharing information easier!
• Location page. Each location has a page with unique URL which shows the location on a map and also has the annual (since 2007) list of birds reported from that location. Click here for an example.
• Watchlists. Once you have logged in to your account, you can add or edit your watchlist, which is a convenient way to pre-specify data searches that you are interested in. For example, if you specify one of your watch items as Greenish Warbler, Kanha National Park, then clicking on this item runs a data search with species and location pre-filled.

Uploading data

• Single sighting form. Earlier, there were three separate forms through which sightings could be submitted - one each for First, General, and Last sightings. These three have now been merged into one, and you can choose the sighting type on that form.
• Add new location using a map. Adding a new location is now easier using our map-based interface. You can search for a location already geocoded by Google Maps, or else you can click on the map to specify any other place. If the geocoded Location or City names are incorrect, you can correct them manually.
• My Locations removed. The earlier My Locations feature stands removed. You can report sightings from any location without adding it to a separate My Locations list.

Exploring data

• Viewing data. An important part of MigrantWatch is making data openly available to anyone who wants to to explore further. The view data page is much improved, with options to filter the data according to your interests, and then view the results on a map or in tabular form. When zoomed out on the map, records from multiple locations cluster into a single icon, which resolves into individual locations as you zoom in. Data can now be downloaded in KML as well as CSV format. KML is a file format commonly used to display geographical data. You can use it to visualise sightings in, for example, Google Earth or Google Maps.
• Sharing data. Data searches are represented by shareable URLs, so now if you want to share a particular map or data table with your friends, you can simply copy and paste the URL into an email. For example, Kedar Champhekar’s sightings are here:
  http://www.migrantwatch.in/beta/data.php?season=All&type=All&species=&user=947&state=all&location=
  Or, if you wanted to share sightings from Sultanpur National Park from the migration season 2008-09:
  http://www.migrantwatch.in/beta/data.php?season=2008-2009&type=All&species=&user=All&state=all&location=1201

We would appreciate it if you could report errors or bugs on the webpage to us at mw@migrantwatch.in

When did you start watching birds?
There was a tree adjacent to the staircase at our home. During the summer vacation of 1980 (I was 10), I noticed that a natural hole in the branch of that tree, which was only 2 to 3 feet away from the stairs, had some bright coloured winged visitors regularly going into and coming out. Fascinated by the brilliant colours of the bird, I spent the entire vacation observing them. That made me want to know more about the bird. Our school had a rule that each student would get a book as a gift from the school on his/her birthday and I received book called “Pankhi Jagat” on my following birthday. I came to know through that book that the bird I was watching is called Coppersmith Barbet. There were many other beautiful birds in that book so I started observing my surroundings to see them. That is how I started watching birds.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
I have been very lucky to have more than one person as my birding mentor. Earliest years in bird-watching were guided by Late Shree Pradhyumna Kanchanrai Desai who has also written many Gujarati books on nature. Our school’s principal Shree Deepakbhai Mehta’s encouragement intensified my thirst for knowing about our surrounding nature. At the age of 14 I joined Bhavngar Wildlife Conservation Society and had a chance to learn a lot from Shree Shivabhadra Sinhji. In the same organisation, I learnt a lot under the guidance of Shree N.C. Bhatt and Shree Mohitbhai Andharia. Attending Shree Lavkumar Khachar’s training while at the nature camps during school is also something I consider myself lucky for.

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
Late Shree Pradhyumnabhai Kanchanrai Desai, my guru in birding, had four African Grey Parrots at his home. He named them “Mithu”, “Charlie”, “Young” and another (I have forgotten the fourth name) He trained them so well that each one was able to mimic Pradhyumnabhai’s voice cleverly and precisely. So much so, that people who were less familiar with Pradhyumnabhai’s voice would not be able to make out if the voice was that of a parrot or a person unless they could see them. The difference was noticeable only after one got familiar with their voices (the parrots voice was nasal and little bit harsh). Each parrot had an individual personality too. One parrot mastered a few “Chopai” of Ramayan, second was good at Gujarati language, and while third was good at English. Fourth one used to ask “Shu karo chho?” in Gujarati (meaning “what are you doing?”).
The times when the parrots were left behind at home while Pradhyumnabhai went out for work were real fun. If a visitor arrived and rang the doorbell, one bird would ask in Gujarati “Kaun?” (meaning who?), while the other one that was more fluent in English would ask “Who?” This would make the visitor think that someone was asking questions before opening the door. The visitor would honestly answer each time and those naughty parrots would keep asking the same question again and again, while the visitor wondered what was going on!

What is/are your favourite migrants?
“Which one is not my favourite?” would be easy to answer; my answer to that would be “NONE”.

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
Thol & Bhaal

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Let’s not keep birding limited to “watching” only.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
For selfish reasons. Sounds weird? Let me explain. If we want our coming generations to see real nature, instead of just images in various formats, we HAVE TO conserve nature. It is for the sake of our coming generations. If everyone firmly decides that “I want my child to be able to see nature intact – not in digitised form”; if everyone understands that the conservation of nature is for the sake of “one’s own” coming generations, then, I believe the result would be would be more effective. That’s why I call it “selfish”.

Visit Amasing Bhaal, a website Aniket has set up devoted to the Bhaal region

Where do you live?
Guwahati, Assam

What do you do?

I’m a journalist. Wildlife, environment and sustainable livelihood issues are some of the areas where I do most of my reporting.

When did you start watching birds?
2008, to be precise

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
I will like to acknowledge Sumit K Sen as my first birding mentor

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
I’m still a novice in the field of birdwatching. But my most memorable bird watching-cum- photography experience was in August 2009. I was in Kaziranga National Park and it was raining heavily. I wanted to click a picture of the Grey-headed Fish-eagle that was perched near a water body. My lens did not allow me to take a shot from a distance so I had to crawl closer to the bird and hide behind a bush. The ground was wet and I felt the sensation of leeches crawling on my legs. After few shots, I found that because of poor light the images were too dark. I was disappointed that my hardwork had gone down the drain. After extricating the leeches, I crawled even closer to the bird. There I found the bird sufficiently close to my lens for a descent shot. The light was benevolent, and I came back with highly satisfactory shots.

What is your favourite migrant?
Citrine Wagtail

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
Deepor Beel, which is a Ramsar Site Wetland south-west of Guwahati

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Always try to engage and persuade new people to take to birdwatching. Through birdwatching we can also spread conservation awareness.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
Birds are intrinsic to the ecological health. These creatures provide an interesting peek into the nature’s phenomenon. Even human activities are influenced by birds.

You can write to Naresh Mitra at nareshmitra09 at gmail.com

Where do you live?
New Delhi

What do you do?
I am working on climate change policy and politics as part of the Indian Youth Climate Network’s Agents of Change program.

When did you start watching birds?
In January 2008, while working with Bombay Natural History Society at Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
I started under guidance of Mr. Sajeev T.K. I later joined the Delhi Bird group and got to interact and share knowledge with many keen birders like Cmdr. Kanwar Singh, Mr. Suresh C Sharma. I never got a chance to go out on a birding trip with Dr. Rahmani but I do write to him about my observations and he has been very helpful in explaining to me many aspects of bird behaviour.

Please describe a memorable birding experience
My most memorable birding experience has been that of watching the nesting behaviour of Common Woodshrike in Asola. There is a beautiful watchtower in Asola, which was my favourite place to read. One day when I was taking a group of students on a nature trail near this watchtower a Woodshrike came and sat on a branch next to the trail. I started to explain to the students the nesting behaviours of different birds without even noticing that the Woodshrike is sitting on its nest! Suddenly, I realised that the bird is sitting on its nest. There were two chicks inside the nest and unlike other birds chick there were very quiet. The nest was really small (about 5 cm in diameter and 3 cm deep), circular and built on a Y-shaped branch. I went back to get my camera; it took almost half an hour to find the nest again! After five days I saw that there were actually three chicks not two. I took some pictures; I was later made aware by expert birder of the fact that I should not click pictures of nesting birds.

What is/are your favourite migrants?
My favourite migrant is the Black Redstart.

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
I go birding in Asola, Okhla Bird Park and Hauz Khas.

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Bird watching is fun so go ahead!

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
We simply can’t avoid our responsibility towards the planet that is providing us with all that we need. We should understand the fact that each species on earth has an important role to play and it’s in our hand to protect them. We are destroying the balance of nature and we really depend on nature for all our requirements, be it food, water, cloth, medicine etc. The numbers of vultures have reduced to a critical level due to anthropogenic factor which has resulted in many problems in rural areas, but the sad part is this we have realized the importance of vultures only when the number reduced drastically. Each species is important.

Singdha is an active member of the Indian Youth Climate Network and occasionally Blogs on the IYCN Blog.

You can write to Snigdha on karsnigdha25 at gmail.com or snigdha at indianyouthclimatenetwork.org

Garima Bhatia

Where do you live?
I live in Koramangala in Bangalore.

What do you do?
I work for General Motors R&D Lab in Bangalore. I am a chemical engineer and my specific area of research is control of particulate emissions from diesel vehicles.

When did you start watching birds?
Birdwatching was always an interest, but it started becoming a serious hobby and indeed a passion only a few years ago, around 2006.

Who would you consider your birding mentor?
My first birding mentor was my father who used to point out orioles and kingfishers from our house, when I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Kolkata. More recently, I have had the pleasure to meet and interact with several birders/photographers, from whom I have learnt a lot - Sumit Sen, Adesh Shivkar, Rajneesh Suvarna, to name a few.

Please describe a memorable birding experience.
We were on a family vacation in Coorg, and staying at a nice little home-stay. The residents of the property owned a large coffee plantation across the road. I was a newbie birder in those days and had borrowed my friend’s 8×40 binocs for this trip. Armed with these and my own Panasonic Lumix camera, I sneaked out at the crack of dawn. This was the first time I was birding alone, and Malabar Trogon was at the top of my wishlist.

The coffee plantation was almost like a forest - the thick canopy and lack of light made photography difficult, and I climbed one of the slopes looking for a good vantage point. Suddenly, a movement down below and a flash of rust attracted my attention, and my initial thought “coucal” turned into sheer delight as I looked through the binocs and found I was looking at my target species.

As I prepared to climb down for a better look at this beauty, to my surprise the trogon flew up towards my right and settled down a short distance away. I could scarcely contain my excitement, and crept towards it to get a shot of it from behind a tree. From then on, I was hooked - to birding and photography.

What is/are your favourite migrants?
Verditer flycatcher, black-naped oriole, greenish warbler, chestnut-tailed and rosy starlings visit the green patch outside my balcony every year, and I eagerly await their arrival every year.

What is your favourite place to watch migrants?
Besides birdwatching from my balcony, I have also enjoyed countless birding trips to Valley School and Nandi Hills. For water birds, I prefer exploring the numerous lakes off Kanakapura road, outside Bangalore.

Do you have any advice for beginning birdwatchers and naturalists?
Be a responsible bird-watcher and always keep the welfare of the birds first in mind. Don’t drive off-road if the habitat contains ground-nesting birds like larks, don’t chase birds in pursuit of that perfect shot, stay away from nests and nesting birds - in short, make sure that your actions don’t cause distress to the birds you are watching or photographing.

Why do you think people should care about birds and nature?
We in India are fortunate to have over 1200 species of birds, but many of these are critically endangered due to loss of habitat. Birds are one of the daily reminders of our interconnectedness and dependence on nature. Humanity has already lost several species due to our thoughtless actions, we should learn from the mistakes of the past and make efforts to preserve what we have. This article is a grim reminder of what the west has gone through, and the increased need for “citizen naturalists”.

You can read more about Garima’s birding trips on her Blog.
Garima can be reached at garima.bhatia at gmail.com

Originally published in ‘The Hindu’ on 1 November 2009

Every year, as the south-west monsoon fades across our land, a sense of restlessness and upheaval brews in the high Himalayas. The grey skies of August transform into the clear blues of September and a developing chill marks the air. The landscape and trees are gathering the colours of autumn; winter is not far. Then, in the high mountains, in ravines with willow and rhododendron, in lichen-encrusted forests of fir and birch, millions of little birds prepare themselves for a great journey.

The birds are so small that they can nestle snugly in the palm of your hand, or even fit into a loosely closed fist. They are most unassuming and drab, dressed in pale greens and humble olives, or in dull browns with scarcely a dash of yellow or orange, sometimes dabbed with pale wing-bars and stripes. They merge so well with the leaves that were they not so active and restless—flitting their wings and calling regularly to announce their presence—it would be hard to even spot them. And yet these wispy little birds, weighing around ten grams, can stake claim to great achievement. Every year, millions of them migrate hundreds to thousands of kilometres—in a matter of days even—flying south from the high Himalaya, the Caucasus and mountains of Central Asia to winter in the foothills, plains, plateaus, and hill ranges across India. And here, after a lull of many months, when the trees and shrubs are a-flutter with lively chirps and twittering song, we know that the leaf warblers are back.

Burning fat
The leaf warblers, as one may guess, have a close association with the foliage of shrubs and trees where they restlessly search for their insect prey. Their restlessness is heightened in the days that precede migration. The birds feed in the foliage, as if in a frenzy, to load up for their journey a crucial stock of fuel: a few grams of fat. That hundreds to thousands of kilometres can be efficiently travelled on a few grams of fat is one of the primal wonders of bird migration. Burning fat is more efficient than burning sugars or proteins, producing as a by-product water, another key need for those long hours on the wing.

Although many birds, including small ones like warblers, fly non-stop between their breeding and wintering grounds, the leaf warblers may make brief stop-overs en route. Thus warblers heading to the southern tip of India may be recorded on passage at sites in northern India or the Deccan in August-September and then again in April-May during the return journey.

Changing lifestyles
In southern India, the most ubiquitous of the leaf warblers is the Greenish Warbler. This species has three forms that differ slightly in plumage and call, which ornithologists sometimes separate into three species. It is found in a range of habitats from urban gardens and plantations to tropical forests, preferring the canopy of trees.

When these warblers leave the sub-tropical and temperate forests of the Himalaya or the mountains beyond for the tropical deciduous and evergreen forests of the south, it is not just the tree species and the habitat they use that changes. They make a fundamental change in their lifestyle. Up north, these warblers live and breed in pairs during the summer, each pair defending its territory from other pairs for its valuable trove of insect food.

Yet, when they come south for the winter, the males and females separate—each individual maintains its own territory. A female sings and defends a territory from other members of its species, just as a male does. Following the monsoon rains, insect prey are rich enough in the foliage to attract the warblers, but scarce enough to warrant staking out a territory to defend it from the warbler multitude.

The territories the birds defend are not large. A single hectare of tropical forest may pack two to four birds holding territories. By marking individuals with numbered and coloured rings on their feet, ornithologists have shown how the same individuals return to the very same quarter hectare of forest after their long journey every year—a feat of fidelity and orientation that one cannot help appreciating in so small a bird.

When the warblers arrive in our forests and gardens in September and October, they arrive singing. These are territorial songs staking claim to their all-important grove of trees or little segment of forest. During the first few weeks, the trees are busy with songs and territorial skirmishes as some warblers settle down in their winter turf and others are chased out of it. The songs then give way to simpler, short call notes serving to merely announce their presence (a boon to birdwatchers to detect and identify each species). Then, over a relatively quiet period, the warblers moult into a new set of feathers, as if to greet the new year.

Linking worlds apart
As April arrives carrying the promise of Himalayan spring, the relentless forces of nature and instinct turn the birds northward. Once more, the birds feed briskly to load up on fat. There is a flurry of song, as if in preparation for the territorial battles to be waged shortly on their breeding grounds. And then, one day, the tree where you have watched the warbler for several months is silent, and the bird is gone again.

And yet, when the warbler departs, it leaves behind a new awareness. An awareness, stirring deep wonder and strangely uplifting, that a tree in one’s garden may be linked to a specific, even if unknown, corner of the Himalaya by one individual bird. A renewed sensibility that the garden and that Himalayan corner, and a range of stop-over sites along the warbler’s route are all needed to keep alive this tiny linker of worlds. The warbler’s journey then seems a brave voyage of survival and connectedness, surmounting artificial boundaries and national differences in a way that transcends our best-intentioned bilateral efforts at cooperation. Softly and unobtrusively, as it has done for millenia, the little warbler continues to tie us to other lands and peoples and nations far away.

T. R. Shankar Raman is with the Nature Conservation Foundation.

Yes, the one-legged Grey Wagtail has returned to the Biligirirangan (BR) Hills for the third year in a row!

I first observed and photographed this bird in 2007. Much to everyone’s surprise, she returned in 2008. Meghna Krishnadas wrote earlier this year on these pages: “Will our hero survive yet another year and two more long journeys to return to Ganesh’s farm at BR Hills? We shall know the answer in a few months, and all of us, Ganesh included, are keeping our fingers crossed!”

Yes, I fervently hoped that the bird I’ve named Kunta (”lame” in Kannada) would make a hat-trick by showing up this year.

I spotted my first Grey Wagtail this year in the forest — in the first week of September — and promptly entered it into my MigrantWatch account. Since then I have been looking out for the now-famous one-legged bird in and around my home here on BR Hills. On the 10th of October when I was returning from a trip to K Gudi (a resort 23 Km south of here) with some friends, we spotted Kunta near a lake just a kilometre from my home, perched on a power-line. Only one of us, (Ms. Pooja Rao) managed to shoot a few photos of the bird, looking as chirpy as ever, and none the worse for wear after the arduous to-and-fro flights these three years!

The weather has not been favourable - it has been raining almost every day for the past month. A pair of Grey Wagtails has been visiting my backyard for about two weeks now, but still no sign of Kunta, who used to wake me up with her cheeping. Is it possible that the new pair has usurped Kunta’s territory? I hasten to add that there certainly are a greater number of Grey Wagtails in this locality compared to the number in the previous years.

One begins to ask questions like - What is the lifespan of these birds? How do they manage to navigate to the same spot every year? What are the dangers they face during these trips? How many of them head towards peninsular India, and how many return?

I have heard that the average lifespan of passerines like the Grey Wagtail is about 3 years - in which case our hero has certainly lived a full life; 3-not out, if I may say so. Knowing that more than 50 percent of these birds die young, I am amazed at this particular handicapped bird!

Is it too much to hope that Kunta makes history by returning in 2010?

The campaign was taken up enthusiastically by MigrantWatch participants, with over 100 Pied Cuckoo entries to the database for 2009, and additional records from previous years. (All data collected during this campaign can be accessed on the MigrantWatch website after you login to your account.)

So did the Pied Cuckoo announce the arrival of the monsoon in different parts of India in 2009? Here are two visual depictions of the arrival of the cuckoo and the monsoon.

The 2009 monsoon
The monsoon set in nine days early on the Kerala coast (on 23 May instead of the normal 1 June) and made a good start. A cyclone in the Bay of Bengal disturbed the normal pattern just after it set in. By 25 May the southwest monsoon had moved over entire Kerala and Tamil Nadu, parts of coastal Karnataka, northeastern states, and most parts of West Bengal. Despite an early beginning, the monsoon progressed slowly after the beginning of June.

About the map and graph
The map shows ‘isolines’ (connecting locations with similar monsoon arrival dates) that depict the approximate advance of the 2009 monsoon (redrawn from this map from IMD, Pune) and the first arrival dates of the Pied Cuckoo as reported by MigrantWatch participants from locations across India.

The graph shows a scatterplot of monsoon arrival dates on the X-axis (horizontal) and first sightings of the pied cuckoo on the Y-axis (vertical). Each point corresponds to a location for which a Pied Cuckoo sighting was reported. The solid black line shows where one would expect the points to fall if each first sighting of was on exactly the day that the monsoon arrived at that location. The dashed black line indicates first sightings preceding the monsoon by five days, and the dotted black line 30 days.

Monsoon arrival dates were extracted from the isolines shown on the IMD Pune map.

For both the map and the scatter plot:

• Only sightings before 15 July 2009 have been used.
• Only the earliest sighting was used for locations with multiple sightings.
• Because there is a resident population of Pied Cuckoos in southern India, we excluded all sightings south of 15°N latitude; but we made an exception for Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh (13.6°N), where the species is known to not be resident.<1>

What can we infer about Pied Cuckoo migration? Might the unusual monsoon this year have altered the typical pattern? Please do write down your interpretations as comments to this Blog. If you would like to look at all sightings of Pied Cuckoo in the 2009 season, you can download them here in excel, open document format, or as a comma-delimited text file. Please also read the notes accompanying these sightings.

Note
1. It is still not clear where exactly in southern India this species is resident and where migrant. The various handbooks and field guides on Indian birds differ on this. You can help to resolve this issue by entering General Sightings of Pied Cuckoo from any time of the year into the MigrantWatch database.

Edits
This post was edited on 20 October 2009 to remove an erroneous May record of a Pied Cuckoo from Rajasthan. This record has been removed from the figures as well as the accompanying data files.