Spot
Billed ducks are now being commonly seen in Van Vihar National
Park. Two pair were seen today at at the aviory. These ducks are
easily identified by the yellow color at the tip of the bill.
The bill is dark in color with two orange red spots at the base.
Larger than the whistling teals, they are about 60-62 cms and
are easily seen in Van Vihar along with common teals and lesser
whistling teals.
The
students of Extol college, Bhopal had a birding session in VVNP.
This was part of the nature activities being conducted these days
in schools and colleges. Group of 18 students from biotechnology
dept. were keen to know about birds and various aspects of birding.
Whistling
teal is now perhaps the most common bird of Van Vihar. As in last
weeks, they were again seen in huge congregation covering up almost
the entire aviory. It seems as if the entire area is covered by
brown color around the water.
Other
birds such as Northern pintail, commmon pochard etc have still
not been seen. Hope they will arrive as the temperature drops
in coming weeks. The number of common teal is very low as compared
to last year when they were present in large groups in almost
all over van vihar and the attached water bodies.
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Black
Redstart - First Winter migrant
VVNP, Photo : Mohd. Khalique
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Black
Redstart with its shivering tail is easily identified by the new
birders. This bird is supposed to be the first winter migrant.
Arrival
of Black redstart marks the beginning of winter migrants to the
city. Female is dull and has brown color in place of black as
in males. They breed in himalayas and beyond ranging from iran
to mongolia.
Because
of its shivering tail its called 'thirthira' in hindi. In bengali
its called 'lal-girdi'.
Todays
attraction was the Yellow fronted pied woodpecker seen on a acacia
tree. Students sat down on the road to watch this beautiful woodpecker
and observered its activities for about 15 min. A reddish scarlet-crimson
color in the abdomen and light yellow head were clearly visible.
Previously
known as Mahratta Woodpecker, theirs always a confusion about
the name. Salim Ali's book calls it Yellow Fronted Pied Wood Pecker.
Grimmett (and probably Kris's book) changes the name to Yellow
Crowned Wood Pecker and Pamela's New Book refers to it as Yellow
Fronted Pied Wood Pecker again. Read
more about this discussion.
Report
and Documentation By : Parag Bakshi
Photographs By : Mohd Khalique
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