February 03, 04 Mohina Macker
Chandigarh is a city of bungalows, trees, gardens, parks and open spaces and
therefore allows a medley of birds to survive and indeed do quite well. Many
birds which live near habitation and on the edges of towns seem to be
thriving, though I have noticed a decrease in some of the birds over years.
The city is situated at the base of the great Himalayas and is fortunately
surrounded by villages, fields, ponds, forests or what constitutes the
regular north Indian countryside. There is however a man made lake in the
city, with a backdrop of the mighty mountains and forests, which seems to
attract many migratory birds making things a little bit interesting.
I spent most of my birding time at this lake the Sukhna Jheel and at my
mother's house. Birding at home is paradise unparalleled. Many cups of tea
in the garden, sunshine, crisp winter morning breeze and birding, what could
be better. My experience at birding is limited as this is a new passion and
sometimes identifying birds in flight is a bit of a task. I have made
efforts to be accurate and in any case have listed only those birds of which
I was completely sure. The limitations of a binocular and lack of a
telescope while observing birds at a distance over water also hampered my
efforts somewhat, but the house garden made up for it. Birds that I could
not identify were swallows and some of the ducks which were to far in the
water for me to be completely sure and a tiny warbler.
There is a rich variety of ducks, geese, waders as well as birds which live
in the reeds near the water edge at the jheel. I did not go to the forest
behind the jheel which also seems to be teeming with birds. However there is
a road adjacent to the jheel where some of the forest birds can be seen. The
city at large harbors its own combination of garden birds. This diverseness
of habitats made for some great birding. After all what could have been
better than sighting a Shikhra from twenty feet basking in morning sunlight,
or a barbet which continuously played hide and seek calling all the time, or
a eucalyptus tree full of what turned out to be a hundred, chattering,
murmuring Green Pigeons, or a lone Greylag Goose hiding in bulrushes, or to
a blue throat strutting in full plumage, or Ruddy Shelducks flying in
complete formation.
I went twice to Chandigarh in the last two years during late autumn, so it
was interesting for me to go back to the same areas and note the slight
difference in the variety that I observed, therefore I have attached both
the lists.
Bird list - November 2002
Little Cormorant
Indian Pond Heron
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Greylag Goose
Ruddy Shelduck
Common Teal
Spot Billed Duck
Northern Pintail
Mallard
Northern Shoveller
Common Pochard
Tufted Pochard
Black Kite
Shikhra
White Breasted Waterhen
Common Moorhen
Coot
Blackwinged Stilt
Red Wattled Lapwing
Redshank
Wood Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Rock Pigeon
Oriental turtle Dove
Roseringed Parakeet
Plum Headed Parakeet
Asian Koel
Pied Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
White Throated Kingfisher
Indian Hoopoe
Indian Grey Hornbill
Coppersmith Barbet
Lineated or Brown Headed Barbet
Brahminy Starling
Asian Pied Starling
Common Mynah
Jungle Mynah
Rufous Treepie
House Crow
Red Vented Bulbul
Jungle Babbler
White Browed Fantail
Ashy Prinia
Tailor Bird
Oriental Magpie Robin
Black Redstart
Yellow Wagtail
White Wagtail
White Browed Wagtail
Purple Sunbird
Oriental White Eye
House Sparrow
Scaly Breasted Munia
Indian Munia
Bird list - October 2003
Darter
Little Cormorant
Grey Heron
Night Heron
Indian Pond Heron
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Ruddy Shelduck
Spot Billed Duck
Northern Pintail
Mallard
Common Pochard
Grageney
Black Kite
Indian Peafowl
White Breasted Waterhen
Common Moorhen
Coot
Blackwinged Stilt
Red Wattled Lapwing
Redshank
Common Sandpiper
Yellow Footed Green Pigeon
Rock Pigeon
Oriental turtle Dove
Roseringed Parakeet
Coucol
Asian Koel
Pied Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
White Throated Kingfisher
Indian Hoopoe
Indian Grey Hornbill
Coppersmith Barbet
Lineated or Brown Headed Barbet
Long Tailed Shrike
Bronzed Drongo
Brahminy Starling
Asian Pied Starling
Common Mynah
Jungle Mynah
Rufous Treepie
House Crow
Red Vented Bulbul
Jungle Babbler
White Browed Fantail
Ashy Prinia
Tailor Bird
Greenish warbler
Oriental Magpie Robin
Blue Throat
Black Redstart
Brown Rock Chat
Indian Robin
Grey Wagtail
White Wagtail
White Browed Wagtail
Purple Sunbird
Oriental White Eye
House Sparrow
Indian Munia
April 09, 03 JL Singh
Chandigarh
Visited Sukhna Lake on March 22 & 23, 2002.
On the 23rd, in the main lake there was a group of about 5000 ducks. They were at quite a distance and I
could not get a very clear look through my binoculars. The group was mostly
Shovellers. I could count
26 Ruddy shelducks at the right end of the group. No other specific duck could be identified from the
distance. The ducks were fine except that a boat kept disturbing them. Towards the extreme right end of the lake
where there are some mud bunds, there was a group of about 100 Black winged stilts. Also seen were
Red-wattled lapwings, 2 median egrets, Black kites, a few cormorants. About 15 Ruddy
shelducks and some Shovellers were also there in this group.
Other birds of interest were Streak-throated swallows - There is a colony at the same spot as there was
last year, when I had reported. I estimate there were about 35 active nests. The nests are built at the
same location at the previous year's nests. You could see that some were old broken nests and some were in
use. On the right side edge of the lake in a separate pool were Garganey - 1 pair, Gadwall - 2 pairs and Coot -
About 15.
On March 23, went directly to the part of the lake on the Eastern side where there are all the water birds.
The ducks were more scattered in the water and nearer to this edge. There appeared to be fewer ducks than
on the previous day and I estimate that there were only about 4000 today. 85% were
shovellers. Most of
the shovellers were on the water but at least 500-600 were on the mud banks outside the water. The next
most obvious duck after the shovellers were the Ruddy shelducks followed by
Spotbills. Interestingly,
the ducks that were flying around the most were these two species. The shelducks in particular were quite
noisy as well with their honking calls. There were a fair number of pintails and
wigeons also. A few tufted ducks. One pair of Garganey and 3 Gadwalls. The last
two were not with the main gang but were on a separate piece of water separated from the main lake by a mud
bund. Outside the water were also 5 Greylag geese feeding. One of the good sightings was a Common
kingfisher. Also seen were the White-throated and the Pied kingfishers. Among the wagtails, the
Citrine was the most common. About 40% had a full yellow head. Also seen was the
White wagtail, almost all in their breeding dress. Seen were the sub-species alboides
and personata.
The total number of species seen over the two days were 56.
