Time to pay undivided attention to the raptors

Almost all the birds of prey associated with the wintering season in these parts seem to have checked into the Pallikaranai marsh 

Once at the Perumbakkam wetland, this writer was an unintentional eavesdropper, soaking up morsels falling off a good-humoured banter between two seasoned birders.

Standing at the extreme end of Classic Farms Main Road, the two friends were chin-wagging over how winter-visiting raptors cutting across species-lines displayed an orderliness, one that kept them from getting into each other’s bristling feathers.

Looking at distant land-marking concrete stakes, one of the two birders noted which raptor would take which stake. This chitchat and the eavesdropping took place before the pandemic. And on hindsight, these stakes were an equivalent of designated, painted social-distancing spots that greeted shoppers at the height of the global health crisis. The raptors were naturally practising social distancing much before it became a necessity for survival for homo sapiens.

So, there is a touch of irony to a report of how two raptors from two different species almost clawed each other, over a “property” dispute, as recently as this Diwali day. On October 24, Umesh Mani, a seasoned birder and a member of Madras Naturalists Society, watched an airborne Osprey heckling a Greater Spotted Eagle off a perch within the boundaries of the wetland.

By no stretch of the imagination can skirmishes between raptors of different species be called an oddity. They do happen but far more rarely than the irritated peckings that routinely take place among birds found in massive mixed flocks, usually waders.

Only that whatever the raptors do now at the Perumbakkam wetland catches the eye unfailingly as the waders are still thin on the waters. As a result, there is fewer distractions eating into the spotlight enjoyed by these birds of prey.

Sightings by birders at the Perumbakkam wetland this season include the marsh harrier, the greater spotted eagle, the osprey, and the peregrine falcon. There is also a record on eBird of a pied harrier (juvenile) sighting.