Even though winter is yet to set in the state, winged guests have started to arrive at Odisha's Chilika lake, the biggest waterfowl habitat in the country, an official said. The migratory birds have already started to arrive in the lake from the first week of the current month, as the usual time of their arrival, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Chilika Wildlife Division, Amlan Nayak said on Tuesday. Their arrival was continuing daily, he said.
Migratory birds of different species like northern pintail, Eurasian wigeon, gadwall, black-tailed gadwall, northern shoveller, greater flamingo, common sandpiper, common coot, mongolian plover, common snipe, black winged stilt, etc, have already swooped down in the lake, Nayak said. The DFO said the arrival of migratory birds to the lake is as usual, even though the day temperature in and around the blue lagoon was hovering at 32 to 35 degrees Celsius at present. The onset of winter and some other causes in their native places might have forced the birds to fly to Chilika, he added.
Several birds are also seen to fly in the sky near Chilika without settling on the lake. They might land once the water level recedes in the lake, Nayak said, adding, "We expected their number might be in large by the end of the current month." The winged guests mostly from beyond the Himalayas in Northern Eurasia, Caspian region, Siberia, Kazakh, Lake Baikal and remote areas of Russia and neighbouring countries visit the Chilika lake every winter and start.