After six months of winter sojourn in the Kashmir Valley, thousands of migratory birds are bidding adieu to return to their summer homes in far off lands.
The preparatory flapping of wings and vigorous feeding are indicators that the spectacle of sound and colour is soon going to end.
“Before beginning their journey of thousands of miles, the birds show significant changes like human beings but with different priorities,” said Imtiyaz Ahmad Lone, the Jammu and Kashmir wildlife warden.
The birds will head to eastern Europe, the Philippines, China and Russian Siberia.
“To ensure cohesion and better communication during the long flight — that lasts on an average a fortnight — the cackle increases, the birds peck at each other to remove damaged feathers, feed more vigorously than usual to build energy for the journey and even pin water chestnuts on each other’s wings to feed during inhospitable stopovers,” Lone told IANS.
This year, according to Lone, more than 8,00,000 migratory birds of various species spent the winter in water bodies and bird reserves in the Kashmir Valley.
For the first time, Lone’s department conducted the Asian water birds’ census in the valley along with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). “It was a voluntary effort which will now be a regular feature.”
The migratory birds which fly to Kashmir include greylag geese, mallards, shovellers, wigeons, teals, pochards, Brahmany Ducks and coots.
There are also resident water birds like normal and purple moorhens, debchicks, strokes, kingfishers and herons.IANS
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/thousands-of-avian-visitors-bid-adieu-to-kashmir-valley/article7037033.ece
