As the water started receding in the Percolation Tank, new shorelines have formed and new habitats and feeding opportunities have opened up for birds and other organisms (though these may be only available for a short time).
One morning, last week, five Glossy Ibises turned up at the shallow end of the tank for foraging. I happened to be lucky to see them since these birds have never before been seen here. We had sighted a lone individual in flight in 2018 at the wetland near the Mouth of the Valley.
There were other birds giving the Ibises company - Cormorants (Little and Indian), Egrets (Intermediate and Little), Indian Pond-heron, Red-wattled Lapwings, Eurasian Moorhens and a lone Green Sandpiper.
Even as I shot a few frames and was observing them, the birds took off along with the Cormorants, heading east. I was hoping they would turn up again at the tank and on my next visit last evening, three birds were again seen in flight over the Acacia trees in the tank.
Glossy Ibis is one of the few species whose population seems to have exploded in the past three-four decades. I still remember how in the 1980’s when the birds first started showing up, especially in the southern India, they made headlines among the members of the ornithological community. But soon their populations expanded rapidly and these days we see them in large numbers across the country.
- Santharam
27 March 2022