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Tweets of winged visitors

More than one lakh migratory birds from Central Asia to Russia and Siberia fly to the Pong dam for roosting and feeding at the water reservoir till the end of March

Tweets of winged visitors

(PHOTO: SNS)

With winters setting in, the tweets of winged visitors from overseas have again livened up the secluded and picturesque Pong dam wetland in Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh.
 
The migratory birds fly from entire central Asia to Russia and Siberia to roost at the water reservoir, also named as the Maharana Pratap Sagar dam.
 
It is the largest man made wetland, measuring 314 square kilometres in the foothills of Himalayas and is located at a distance of around 300 kilometres from Shimla.
   
The birds start arriving at Pong wetland by the end of September every year and stay there till the onset of winters. Barring few years, in normal course, more than a lakh waterfowls of different species come to the reservoir for their sojourn, turning the area into a bird watchers’ paradise.
 
 “Around 15000 birds have already arrived as per the bird census done by us on October 28. Many more would be recorded as they keep coming and their numbers usually swell up by December, January,” DS Dadwal, Assistant Conservator, Pong and Divisional Forest Officer (Headquarters), Wild Life Circle, Dharamshala told The Statesman.
“The migratory birds roost and feed here till March end. Majority of them fly back then. Some species stay back for more time if the cold conditions prevail,” Dadwal said.
The wild life wing of Himachal has been keenly studying the pattern of migratory birds through ringing of birds and their behavioral pattern through collars over the past some years. Dadwal has been involved in the exercise, keeping with his knowledge of the subject.
Migratory birds including the bar-headed geese, coot, common pochard, red-crested pochard, great cormorant, gadwall, northern pintail, river tern and the spotbill duck are usually spotted at the reservoir every year.
Other species, which are seen near the waters in Pong are common shelduck, the greater white fronted goose, the black bellied tern, the Sarus crane, the lesser white-fronted goose, the osprey, the buff bellied pipit and water rail. 
These species are not common visitors in other wetlands in India. As per wild life officials, the influx of the bar-headed geese can be spotted in marshy areas along the reservoir like Nagrota Suriyan, Nandpur Batoli, Chatta, Jambal and the island in the Pong dam.
Pong wetland is also home to many native birds like the red jungle fowl, large Indian parakeet, Indian cuckoo, bank mynah, wood shrike, yellow-eyed babbler, black ibis, paradise flycatcher, crested lark and the crested bunting.
A total of 423 species of birds, 18 species of snakes, 90 species of butterflies, 24 species of mammals and 27 species of fish have so far been recorded in the Pong Dam wildlife sanctuary.
The highest number of winged guests ever recorded at Pong dam has been 1.5 lakh. Last year, the number was 1.06 lakh.
– By Archana Phull

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