Six woolly necked storks put in an appearance at Nemmeli

It is a near-threatened species and is associated more with the southern parts of Tamil Nadu; scattered records of its sighting in Chennai’s outskirts do exist

The human species revels in having things is its own image; this obsession sometimes manifests as a desire to name parts of the outside world in a manner that bring them closer to its reality. So, you have birds going around, bearing curious name badges. A species sporting such a badge (more on its binominal name later) showed up recently in a space considered to be lying outside its known range — a glimpse of the woolly necked stork at the Great Salt Lake at Nemmeli off OMR. There are scattered records of the woolly necked stork (Ciconia episcopus) in Chennai’s outskirts -- considerably few and infrequent. In Tamil Nadu, the wooly necked stork, a resident species, is associated more with southern parts, being found around agricutural tracts. Its propensity for local movements would have whisked them to Nemmeli. Past the salterns on the road from Nemmeli (East Coast Road) to Thiruporur (Old Mahabalipuram Road), the scenery shifts to an expanse of green, stretches of paddy fields -- probably an incentive for these birds to hit these parts.

On the field, the woolly necked stork stands out for a neck that seems to have been rolled up in a fabric of wool. In the field guide, its scientific name Ciconia episcopus stokes curiosity on account of its second half denoting “bishop” in Latin (though in its current usage, episcopus is largely wrapped up in a secular meaning, “overseer”). The black patch on the its head (offset by its woolly white neck) resembling the skull cap -- zucchheto -- worn by Catholic clergymen is the reason.

The bird is also loosely called episcopus. And a flock of six episcopi ushered in a still-new New Year during a solemn worship of nature that E. Arun Kumar, an OMR-based birder, participated in.

Here is an account of sighting of six woolly necked storks, in the words of Arun Kumar himself: “In the late evening of January 4, I sighted six woolly necked storks in the waters at the Nemelli section of the Great Salt Lake. It was not long before they took off for a they pylon where all of them settled down. I went back the next day to check on them in better lighting and found the same flock of six birds. The great salt lake had very good activity of ducks with hundreds of Northern Pintail, Eurasian Wigeons and Northern shovelers among the congregation of birds. There was also a hundred plus flock of rosy starlings. When admiring them I chanced upon the woolly necked storks.”

The woolly necked stork is a near threatened species.