Happy 2023

 

I planned the New year celebration with migratory and native birds in the rural parts around Nasik. Enjoyed beautiful view at the Ramsar wetland site in Nasik, which included painted storks resting on the trees, common cranes in the grassland, smaller egrets dining in the shallow waters, kites swooping, ibis and spoonbills in a flight, half of the cormorants in the wing-drying pose, purple moorhen (swamphens) busy hunting around the grass, purple and grey herons like always isolated from the crew and snaking the neck, crested and common kingfishers, wagtails bouncing everywhere, robins and drongos shining black against sunlight, stilts steadily preying in the shallow waters, fly and bee eaters sitting on the branches, fantailed on the walking trails, grey hornbills and lapwings in pairs, Eurasian common coot bathing in the backwaters, ruddy shelduck (Brahminy duck) swimming in the lake, grey goose walking on grass, gadwall dabbling in fresh water, spotbilled duck green wing flight, common pochard, shoveler with huge spatula of beaks, lot of noisy parakeets and doves on our way towards exit and a pintailed on the wire just when I was leaving the site. I headed further to see the barn swallows at the bank of the river. The location was more than an-hour-walk-away. Swallows had built a lot of nests on the huge rocks adjoining the template of the river. The birds built up sturdy nests with mud and self-secreted saliva. Hundreds of swallows were seen in the sky in a swooping flight and kept repeatedly swirling. Like a systematic drill the troop moved in a direction, forked out in two groups and then reunited in a specific pattern. They were superbly fast and  kept cruising for hours together till the sky turned pink during sunset and they finally entered their homes. They are tiny ones with hell lot of energy and can sleep even during flight. They are strong in unity and can hit you if you try to destroy their home. In few hundreds in the herd not one would be left out till the team swallow finds that one fellow mate. Until then the herd kept performing sky ballet known as 'murmuration'. Finally, all disappeared in their houses leaving a sudden silence in no moment and hungry predators  were left behind awestruck.