Waders arrive

Experiencing Pulicat in Kelambakkam 

The Hindu

Sept 19th 2021

Prince Frederick

For local birders, the ruddy turnstone is a “Pulicat bird” — period. The winter migrant keeps its date with the lagoon with almost monsoonal punctuality. Birders flocking to Pulicat for its stone-turning performance do not have too many cancelled matches to rail about.

The winter migrant does put in an appearance on a few other sections of the coast around Chennai, but it is just what it is said to be — an appearance, fleeting and unpredictable, on this winter and off for the next three. So, ruddy turnstone occurrences around Kelambakkam are received with the excitement that surrounds breaking news.

In the early hours of September 12, when Sundaravel Palanivel and Sivakumar Shamugasundaram began exploring the Kelambakkam backwaters and adjacent sections that are ecological extensions of it, for signs of early migrants, they did not have the ruddy turnstone on the list of probables.

Not that the species has never before been recorded on sections of these backwaters. However, on the question of being attractive to the ruddy turnstone, Kelambakkam backwaters’ record looks deplorably poor when juxtaposed with Pulicat’s. The chasm is as wide as the difference between Dilip Doshi’s batting averages and Virat Kozhi’s — so you get the picture.

When the day had sunk on the landward side, these two birders were mighty chuffed to have experienced Pulicat south of Chennai. Sundaravel Palanivel uploaded a checklist on which were parked three ruddy turnstones. The surprise did not begin with this species; nor did it end there. The biggest of those wow encounters was a flock of around 60 lesser sand plovers.

It was the size of the flock that made the birding duo feel being whisked away to Pulicat.

“We had the sense of encountering all the Pulicat birds. Besides the ruddy turnstones, terek sandpipers are readily associated with Pulicat. We found three of them on that Sunday trip,” says Sundaravel.

“It is a great pleasure to observe early migrants, especially when you encounter them in an unexpected place. There was much human activity not far from where the birds were. But these waders, not in the thousands that one would expect them to see later, did not seem affected by it. We could observe them go about their business from a good distance. The sand plovers, pacific golden plovers, terek sandpipers, the lone curlew sandpiper, the busy turnstones and the godwits were all a pleasure to watch and record,” is how Sivakumar describes the experience of watching an impressive number of migrants as early as September.

While the list put up on eBird clearly has a whiff of Pulicat, one has to go through the entire season to arrive at a reliable picture of whether the Muttukaddu-Kelambakkam-Kovalam backwater ecosystem can “sustain” the Pulicat experience through an entire season.

In fact, one has to be at least a couple of more winters older to be wiser in this matter. Meanwhile, it would help chew on an observation made by birder E Arun Kumar, who has done synchronised bird surveys at Pulicat for the last three years for the forest department.

Arun Kumar notes: “Sometimes, around the Kelambakkam side, you will get to see the ruddy turnstone because of the presence of the estuary at Muttukadu. Sometimes, the birds regularly sighted at Pulicat during the winter season are sighted around the Kelambakkam backwaters. They use it as the stopover point: At Kelambakkam, you will not see them for a long time. They will stay for just two or three days and then move on to Yedayanthittu estuary and Mudaliarkuppam backwaters or to Pulicat. When they come to Pulicat, they would stay on for months. In contrast, Kelambakkam would be just a pitstop. As Pulicat and Yedayanthittu are relatively untouched by development and are more expansive habitats, the species that are sighted at Kelambakkam will be found there in larger numbers . To give an example, you will see a few Pacific golden plovers in Kelambakkam, and thousands of them in Pulicat. In fact, the Pacific golden plover is also known to head to freshwater lakes which was corroborated by the sighting of 40 Pacific golden plovers at the Mamandur freshwater lake last wintering season.”

Urban Wilderness Walk - Thiruvanmyur

29th August '21

In July this year, MNS launched a project called Urban Wilderness Walks, an internship for college students, with the goal of creating more nature educators in the city, and creating a kind of snowball effect for increasing connect to urban wilderness in the city of Chennai.  Spearheaded by Yuvan and  Kalpana, it is an amazing initiative.

Kalpana explained in the MNS bulletin -   

"The internship was begun with the aim of creating a community around biodiversity appreciation and study through training people in planning and conducting periodic urban wilderness walks in their neighbourhoods. The 27 interns, mainly from two womens’ colleges in Chennai - Stella Maris College and Womens’ Christian College - attended field sessions at Perungudi and Kotturpuram Urban Forest and participated in activities curated by M. Yuvan as part of their training module. For easy identification of common urban fauna, each intern received a copy of Preston Ahimaz’s “A Guide to Some Urban Fauna of India” as well as the Field Guide for identifying Common Birds, published by NCF.

As a first step the interns checked out their residential localities from the perspective of conducting wilderness walks, chose a suitable trail for the walk and invited people to participate in the walk. Inspired by Yuvan’s activity sheets they designed their own to suit the chosen trail and surroundings. The result - delightful activity sheets and unique activities formulated to engage the walk participants. Fun activities were created and implemented – estimating the age of trees by measuring tree girth, colouring insects and birds on activity sheets, drawing leaf shapes, drawing food chains, urban flora and fauna bingo, identifying birds through calls, making bird sounds, enacting commonly observed behaviour of animals, checklists for biodiversity observed on particular trees, open ended questions...the list goes on......."

This hybrid orientation - online and offline - culminated in a series of walks by the interns in their areas - Pallikaranai, Velachery, Thiruvanmiyur, Adyar, IITM, Mandaveli, Royapettah, Triplicane, St. Thomas Mount, Washermanpet, Madhavaram, Perambur, Ayanavaram, Mugappair, Aminjikarai, Kolathur, Virugambakkam, K.K. Nagar, Ambattur and Avadi.....  I attended the one conducted by Keerthana in Thiruvanmyur, along Kuppam Beach Road.  

Each of the interns made lovely little posters like this one on the left that I received.   

The previous night we had heavy rain, and it was a slushy walk to the starting point which was near Bhavani medai.  It was a small group that started the walk.

It is the end of August and the "Mayflowers" are in bloom, I loved the colours on this one, all washed and bright.  It is unsurprising that the British brought this tree in, so attractive and graceful.  As we were finishing our walk, we also saw one that had fallen in the overnight rain - the shallow roots once again evident.

My big learning was the approximation of a tree's age - Four feet from the ground, measure the girth in centimetres and divide by 2.5!  This Rain Tree near the fish market, was around 90 years old, then! As old as my father!

My next discover was courtesy Usha, who added to the walk with a small detour into Teachers Colony and and ancient Shiva temple there.

What caught my immediate attention was a fig species tree, growing all over and into the temple wall.

The Shiva temple houses the samadhi of Siddhar Bala Ramalinga Nathar who used to worship here, centuries ago.  It is all bricked and plastered now, so it was difficult to imagine its antiquity.  There was a lovely Nandi as well.

Took a picture of the leaves of this fig, which was not a Peepul.  Was it the Rock fig - Kallala tree?  I doubt it, as the edges are not wavy and nor are the veins pink. More like Icchi maram, or Talbot Fig?

The roots below and the temple were supporting this enormous canopy above.

In the compound was the second ancient tree - a Peepul - that we measured, and this emerged as 110 years of age! It was a glorious sight, since it had grown unfettered and unimpeded, with a uniform all-round canopy.

I learned about murungai "Pisin" or the resin from the bark - supposedly a widely used herbal remedy for stomach ailments

The Murungai trees on the road were in fruit, in abundance!

A small roadside guava was in flower too

We continued up Balakrishna road- with its Australian Acacia trees and Bauhinias.  We saw a bunch of sparrows flitting through the trees, a few sunbirds, heard a Koel and some red vented bulbuls. A screechy parakeet flypast up above too.

Cotton stainer bugs species scurried in the undergrowth as also large black ants.

We turned west on First Seaward road, and saw the beautiful Jamun trees.  Of course the area is dotted with Neem trees as well.

It was an interesting and enjoyable morning, and we parted ways, wishing Keerthana all the best for her future walks as well. As  Usha and I made our way home, we were filled with positive energy, as a morning walk is bound to do.  Never mind the sweat of course!

Who would imagine a peacock in the neighbourhood?!

 Aug 31st 2021

Walking past our eastern windows, I look out in my usual post-lunch habit of looking at the teak tree in our neighbour's garden, for the Drone on the hunt, or the bulbul calling, when I saw a large something on the wall of the neighbour's terrace.  I look again, and there stood a peacock, surveying the territory!

While I scrambled to get my binoculars and rouse the family to this unusual sight, it stood on the parapet, gazing down at the dog below, and almost seeming to wonder as to what to do.  It was calm and unhurried and strolled up and down the parapet.

Then it hopped down into the terrace and surveyed the ground for fallen neem fruits, which it seemed to eat.  I noticed that his tail feathers had not grown out as yet and also that there was no other peafowl/hens around.

In all our years at Thiruvanmyur (25 plus), this is the first sighting of a wild peafowl in the neighbourhood for me.  My brother had seen a peahen in May at the height of lockdown.  Through the lockdown, peafowl have been sighted in various TN cities, quite regularly. 

On the 27th, NBR neighbour Rags had messaged that he had seen one in the neighbour's garden - just flew in from nowhere!  We continued to see it in and around our building for the next three days, and then it  flew on.

Doing a walk on the parapet

I learnt that males get their feathers after say 3 years, so this was probably below that age.  I was reminded  of another day, in Manas where I had most recently seen the peacock dance for his mate.

Every forest trip in India for me has a peacock memory, and here was this young chap right at my doorstep!

How well do we know this neighbour?

The Geisha hen, I call it.  Always reminds me of  a painted face.  Now a Geisha is supposed to be graceful and all that....but not this endearing water hen, which clucks around and moves in a. jerky fashion, busy always.  Any wetland, and it is sure to be spotted.  Even in the dirty waters of the Buckingham canal I have seen them, amidst the water hyacinth.

It was nice to read this article by Frederick in the Downtown section on a day which was not at all good, a Happy Teacher's Day, that will now forever be a day we lost dear Keshav.  One more life's lesson learnt from the school  of living.  

The Hindu

Prince Frederick

5/9/21

The commonplace remains unnoticed. It takes unusual circumstances, sometimes a breakdown of the regular order, for it to gain attention. Does anyone have memories of “oxygen” dominating quotidian chatter before the Second Wave?

The white-breasted waterhen is an avian example of the commonplace — ten a penny, as megatick seekers among birders would uncharitably put it.

The bird is widespread in its range. It is easily sighted in its habitat, in striking contrast to some of its painfully attention-shy resident rallidae cousins — the slaty-breasted rail, the ruddy-breasted crake and the Baillon’s crake.

And therefore, it is unconsciously ignored, ironically concealed from sight, and missing from birders’ field notes.

In later part of August, this writer would have looked through a white-breasted waterhen pair if not for how they herded their brood to safety.

Parent-birds of most feathers have a strong gathering instinct, which they use through subtle cues to the young. But this particular pair seemed to herd their young with the efficiency of a Belgian sheepdog. There were five chicks, and a majority of them seemed bent on straggling away from the flock. The scene was unfolding in a pool of water right outside the massive bund of a lake on the winding Gandhi Road in Nedungundram, with the Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road just a walking distance away.

One parent led the pack and the other brought up the rear.

However, the main point of interest is how the chicks helped themselves to safety the next day, when this writer watched these precocial chicks plunge into the same pool of water, alarmed by what they assumed to be intrusive steps, and deftly climbing on to the vegetation and disappear to safety.

The swiftness with which they slipped away was impressive. It was as if they had a claw in each of their wings. That is hardly figurative, because apparently the young of the white-breasted waterhen do possess them. But there is no recorded evidence of white-breasted waterhen chicks putting those wing claws to any use.

A few years ago, Pune-based animal rehabilitator Devna Arora put out an interesting note about wing claws that she noticed in a white-breasted waterhen chick that had been brought into her centre for rehabilitation.

“I just made an observation, because I know that it has not been recorded properly. I have not gone into studying the subject in detail — as I am a rehabilitator, and not an ornithologist. I have made an observation note, in case it is of use to anybody in the future,” explains Devna, whose note can be accessed at her website.

Wing claws should theoretically be a valuable prop to chicks of nidifugous species, particualry those that have much clambering to do. Of the raillidae family, the white-breasted waterhen is essentially a bird of the reeds, though it does not restrict itself to it.

Ornithologist V Santharam points out that use of wing claws by chicks as a safety prop has been documented in the hoatzin, a bird found in the Amazon. He remarks that in the context of wing-claw use, more observation of the young of species like the white-breasted waterhen is required. However, he notes: “Besides the hoatzin, it appears that wing claws in most other species are just a vestigial organ like the appendix in human beings.”