Porbandar bird census: Thousands of cranes, ducks in Medha creek surprise birdwatchers

“I wanted to see such huge flocks of cranes, flamingos and pelicans and my father, Lakshmikant, who himself is a birdwatcher, advised me to come to Porbandar to see not just cranes, flamingos and pelicans but dozens of others species of waterbirds. Hence, I registered for this survey,” says the 21-year-old Laukika who has been birdwatching for the past four years.

Vadala Talav is a reservoir in Medha Creek, a web of freshwater and brackish water wetlands and Laukika was part of one of the 17 teams of birdwatchers led by Dhaval Vargiya who undertook population estimation of waterfowls as part of the Bird Count Porbandar Wetlands, 2023.

The two-day bird count has been organise by the Bird Conservation Society of Gujarat in collaboration with the Gujarat forest department and is sponsored by the Saurashtra Chemicals Limited, a subsidiary of Nirma Group.

As Laukika was lost counting the demoseile cranes which migrate from central Asia to the western shores of Gujarat for wintering, Vargiya, the Gujarat state coordinator of Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) and president of the Mokarsagar Wetland Conservation Committee (MWCC), Porbandar, however, was taken in by something else.

“This river tern seems to have nested here. Look at the gaite of her perching. It looks very similar to a tern sitting on her nest. The manner in which they are chasing away other terns is also an indication that they have built a nest there on that small island and are protecting it,” Vargiya tells his junior team member from Mumbai and Ramesh Gounder, an assistant manager with a leading pharmaceutical company in Ahmedabad.

Vargiya, who conducted bird counts in the wetlands of Porbandar for seven years between 2014 and 2021 under the aegis of MWCC, says that he has never seen terns nesting in this part of Porbandar.

The team also record darters, cormorants, common teals, common pochards, red-wattled lapwings, great egrets etc in this wetland.

While the BCSG team was busy counting the birds, Rana Modhwadia, a farmer who has land on the bank of this reservoir comes riding his motorbike.

Pointing out to feathers and bones lying near a patch of reeds, he complains: “Poachers come here often at night to kill these birds. We challenge them but many a time they injure the birds before we notice them and challenge them and chase them away. It will be good if forest department intensifies patrolling in this area,” says the 28-year-old.

His uncle Leelabhai Modhwadia says it is their duty to protect these birds. “My father used to tell us that these birds come here, leaving their young ones behind in their breeding grounds thousands of kilometres away and that they could be waiting for safe return of their parents,” says Leelabhai, 55.

The team then moves to downstream Bavra Beti wetland and spots huge flocks of lesser flamingos, pelicans, demoiselle cranes, common cranes, common teals, Eurasian wigeons, northern pintails, northern shovelers, garganeys etc.
Meanwhile, Laukika and Gounder get engrossed in watching a juvenile of lesser flamingo before Vargiya draws their attention to a rather unusual bird.

“Look at that bird with darker plumage and sitting next to the rosy starling. Isn’t that a common starling,” Vargiya says, before confirming with his pair of binoculars, “Indeed, this is a common starling, a rare bird for this region.”

By the end of the day, the team records 74 species of waterfowls with the demoiselle cranes being the most abundant of them.

“I saw birds of 11 species, including demoseille cranes, common cranes, great white pelicans, rosy pelicans etc for the first time in my life,” Laukika reports to Vargiya with a smile while chekcing the team’s trip report on eBird app.
The bird census will conclude on Sunday afternoon.

“This exercise will prove very helpful in generating data about bird species and their population in Porbandar for getting some of the wetlands of this district listed as Ramsar wetlands of international importance,” Uday Vora, honourary secretary of the BSCG said.