Migratory birds from Siberia take off
from the artificial lake at
Chhat Bir Zoo.
— Photo by Manoj Mahajan

A rare winged spectacle
By Donald Banerjee
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 29 — It was a sight worth going miles to see: migratory birds from Siberia dotting every part of the big artificial lake at Chhat Bir Zoo. Yes, this was the scene this afternoon when Manoj Mahajan and I visited the water feature.

From a distance they appeared as brown specks. But as we got nearer, it was clear. The Siberian visitors had arrived for their winter abode.

Monday being a closed day for the zoo, the birds floated on the lake virtually basking in the sun. Our appearance on the bank disturbed a couple of spotbills. They fluttered their wings and took off followed by about 10 more. This flock took a round of the lake and descended again to join the floating ones.

By a rough estimate, one could easily say they were in thousands. As Manjo aimed his telescopic camera a flock of pochards took off. The disturbance was enough to create a whiff of air. Three more flocks took off. Our presence had been noticed by the Siberian birds. To say the least, we were not welcome. Soon the sky was dotted with birds taking an aerial view of the goings-on down below.

The pintails and shovellers could also be spotted as the birds descended again to float in the sun. But this time the visitors paddled away to the far side of the lake.

I talked to the attendants nearby. They said there had been a sudden appearance of these birds. "Four days back there were barely 200 of them on the lake", said one of the attendants. "But the number I have seen today is unprecedented", said the other person.

On the other side of the lake a tubewell continued to spout a regular flow of water. We talked to the Director of the Zoo, Dr Vinod Sharma. He said there was 24-hour supply of tubewell water. The lake had also been cleared of weeds.

When the water features had been opened at the zoo, the Ghaggar was the supply line. But the polluted water did more damage than good. This made the zoo authorities go in for tubewell water. Now all the water features get a regular supply from tubewells.

Painted storks had been seen at the zoo about a couple of years back. But today there were none at the artificial lake. But we did not have to wait long, we spotted six of them at the aviary enclosure.

An hour later, we were back at the artificial lake. Normalcy had returned. The migrants had occupied every point of the lake. A caramont could be seen perched on the top of a date palm tree in the centre of the lake.

The cry of bats from the right saw us heading towards a jungle of jamun trees. Then we spotted the flying vampires dangling from the branches. We counted 80 of them on two trees. We were under a colony of bats — thank God, they cannot see in daylight.

Our zoo visit over, we headed for the Sukhna Lake, the well-known abode for these birds for several years. We saw human beings all over basking in the sun, but no Siberian visitors. Regulars to the lake say the number of birds at the lake in the mornings are in hundreds.