To be a birdwatcher, you need time

PUNE: "To force the pace and never to be still is not the way of those who study birds..." wrote poet Nissim Ezekiel. And this is a fact. To be a birdwatcher, you need time, and enormous patience.
As the winter finally sets in the city, it's time to bring out those binoculars and that high-resolution camera, as migratory birds return to make Pune their home for the next few months.
"There's no specific time to go birdwatching, since birds can be seen anywhere at any given point of the day," says city-based ornithologist Satish Pande. But yes, if it's the multitude of migratory birds you want to visit, it's the best time of the year. "The migratory birds start arriving in the city from as early as the end of October. They do not come together in hordes. Different varieties arrive at different times till March," he explains.
Of the over 1,100 species of birds that can be found in India, around 15 per cent of them are migratory. "In Pune, on the other hand, we can find over 500 species with about 15 per cent of them being migratory," says Pande. While the early migrants are the seabirds like gulls and terns who comes to the coastal areas like Alibaug, waders and ducks follow them. Cranes and raptors are the latecomers.
In the city, these birds have several hotspots, including Pashan lake, Kawdi, Bhigwan Veer dam on the Nira river, Khadakwasla, Saswad, Purandar, Alandi, Sinhagad valley, Tamhini ghat, and Lonavla-Khandala.
"Right now, most of these areas are filled with the birds. You can see flamingos at Bhigwan and the bar-headed geese, who arrived from the Tibetan highlands, at the Veer dam," says birdwatcher Rahul Rao.
Apart from the regular birds, even some rare birds can be seen in and around Pune, says Pande. "The rough-legged buzzard, the Japanese buzzard and the European roller are some very rarely seen birds which were sighted in places around Pune," says Pande.
But, there are also the regulars like the bar-headed geese, whose numbers have reduced alarmingly, the brahminy duck, snipes, godwits, shanks, plowers and also raptors like the booted eagle, steppe eagle, osprey, harriers and also the short-eared owl, which is the only migratory owl.
"These birds are again seen depending on their habitat like the ducks can be seen near wetlands, small insect and fruit eaters like warblers, leaf warblers, buntings, rose finches in forested areas across the Western ghats and other birds like the chat, wheatears, goshawk, raptor, rock thrush in arid and semi-arid areas like Saswad, Bhigwan and Purandar. Raptors and cranes on the other hand can be sighted in agricultural areas," says Pande.
Amateur birdwatcher Pramod Deshpande, who recently co-authored the book 'Birds of Lonavla-Khandala' with Satish Pande, Vivek Vishwasrao and Niranjan Sant, says, "This year, watch out for the ultramarine flycatcher and the paradise flycatcher, of which the former is quite rarely seen."
The best time to go watching bird is early morning and the evening, when most birds feed. "While insect-feeders can be seen in early mornings, the best time to visit the fruit-eaters is the evening. Raptors are seen in the afternoons when the air is hot, as it's these warm currents of air that they glide on," says Pande.