Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus

Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary - Ujni Backwaters, Kumbhargaon

To the south of Bhigwan, bereft of any hills, lie the wide Ujni backwater wetlands. A shallow waste water reserve formed by the discharge of water from the Pune region dams like Panshet, Pawna, Khadakwasla, Varasgaon, Temghar, etc. This semi waste water has created an excellent wetland based ecosystem supporting a large variety of water birds, both endemic and migratory, and also helped with the local agriculture. Nearly 300 species of endemic and migratory birds have been recorded here. The rainfall in the Pune region decides the water level in Ujni dam. Lesser the water, the shallower it is and therefore more birds make it their home in the winter. 

Surrounding this lush ecosystem are the rich grasslands and fertile farms home to an impressive list of birds, mammals and reptiles. The area around these backwaters are also unique with rich farmlands and dry deciduous scrub forest with interspersed grasslands. Home to an impressive list of birds, mammals and reptiles they protect many mammals like the Chinkara, the Indian Mongoose, the Near Threatened Striped Hyena, Endangered Indian Grey Wolf & Indian/ Bengal Fox and are also popular for grassland birds and many birds of prey, including some magnificent eagles & harriers. My trip this time was focused only a few species like the Striped Hyena, Indian Grey Wolf and Jungle Cat. On our way back into the grasslands from the backwaters after spending some time with the Near Threatened Great Thick-knee and the Kentish Plover I came across this Pallas’s Gull foraging in the waters off the bund.

But these water birds aren’t the only ones there, there are some magnificent eagles and harriers too like the Endangered Steppe Eagle, the Vulnerable Greater Spotted Eagle, the rare and Vulnerable Eastern Imperial Eagle & the Pallid Harrier, Montagu’s Harrier & Eurasian Marsh Harrier.

Apart from these there are other spectacular species like the Short-eared Owl, Spotted Owlets & the Indian Courser inhabiting the grasslands.

During my time here I was hosted by & had the expert help of Sandip Nagare and his team of knowledgeable guides from the Agnipankha Bird Watcher group, especially Ganesh Bhoi, who went out of their way to ensure I had fantastic opportunities to explore, discover, observe & photograph my target species on this trip like the Near Threatened Striped Hyena. As always, I stayed at Sandip’s homestay and once again had the added pleasure of indulging in delectable home cooked food. 

Read about my birds from Kumbhargaon & the Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary here and watch the videos on my Youtube channel - WildArtWorks.

This time I saw some very alarming signs. The summers of the last two years have been harsh and the rains have been scanty leading to extensive evaporation and receding of the waterfront. My friend and local guide, Ganesh, said that the backwaters have receded almost two kilometers from where they used to be. This exposed land is now used for cattle grazing and some degree of farming. 

Ujni Backwaters, Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary

The Ujni or Ujjani Dam, also known as Bhima Dam or Bhima Irrigation Project, on the Bhima River, a tributary of the Krishna River, is an earth-fill cum Masonry gravity dam located near the Ujjani village of Madha Taluk in the Solapur district of the state of Maharashtra in India. The Bhima River, which originates in Bhimashankar of the Western Ghats, and forms the Bhima Valley with its tributary rivers and streams, has twenty-two dams built on it of which the Ujjani Dam is the terminal dam on the river and is the largest in the valley that intercepts a catchment area of 14,858 km² (which includes a free catchment of 9,766 km²). The construction of the dam project including the canal system on both banks was started in 1969 at an initial estimated cost of ₹400 million and when completed in June 1980 the cost incurred was of the order of ₹3295.85 million.

The reservoir created by the 185 feet high earth cum concrete gravity dam on the Bhima River has a gross storage capacity of 3.320 km³. The annual utilisation is 2.410 km³. The project provides multipurpose benefits of irrigation, hydroelectric power, drinking, and industrial water supply and fisheries development. The irrigation supplies benefit 500 km² of agricultural land, particularly in the Solapur district. Water supplied from the reservoir to irrigate agricultural areas primarily aims to reduce the incidence of famines and scarcity during drought conditions. The reservoir operation also lessens the threat due to floods to cities such as Pandharpur (an important religious pilgrimage centre for the Hindus). As a result of irrigation facilities, some of the important crops grown under irrigated conditions are sugarcane, wheat, millet and cotton.

This huge reservoir, almost seeming like a sea, is home to hundreds of birds - Flamingos with their slender necks, Egrets, Painted Storks, Ruddy Shelducks and many more. A man-made wetland, these backwaters are a winter sojourn of many migratory birds like the Brown-headed Gulls & Bar-headed Geese making it a mesmerising spectacle. This reservoir is one of the largest backwaters in India created by the Ujni dam. This life giving and sustaining reservoir fulfils multiple purposes - irrigation for agriculture, particularly in the Solapur district, being the primary one - but it also has rural, urban and industrial activities that are equally consuming.

Presently India has 26 sites designated as wetlands of International Importance according to Ramsar Convention. As far as Maharashtra goes, of its multiple natural and man-made reservoirs, none are designated as a Ramsar site. But according to Ramsar’s important identification criteria of population of migratory birds, the Ujni backwaters are amongst the six important wetlands of Maharashtra hosting around 250 species of migratory and resident birds ranging from the Pied Kingfisher, Northern Shoveler, Bar-headed Geese, Great Egret, Painted Stork, Indian Cormorant, Eurasian Coot, Common Moorhen, Black-headed Ibis, Asian Open-bill, the list is pretty long.

With such a blessed habitat harbouring many species of flora and fauna, this wetland has tremendous benefits to the villages around it. Sufficient water for agriculture, livelihoods to many through fishing and tourism, flood control and shoreline stability are some of the aspects this wetland caters to. Though created strategically for economic development, today, the value of these wetlands function far beyond the scope of any instrument of economic growth.

But the modern day demands on this resource are tremendous. Cash crops requiring huge irrigation, unmonitored use of pesticides, untreated and excessive sewage and industrial waste disposals, uncontrolled urban growth and the changing mindsets of people for newer lifestyles are slowly and steadily affecting this huge wetland.  Decline in the fish density in the major tributaries of River Krishna, increase in exotic weed species in water are some of the indicators of quality degradation of the wetland recorded by researchers. This isn’t the only threat to this spectacular habitat and its wildlife but it also has long term adverse effects on the present and future human population who are consumers of this wetland in the various ways they utilise it.

The conservation of such a large reservoir isn’t a simple task. It requires judicious water usage for local, agricultural and industrial purposes, advocating advanced irrigation technologies to avoid and minimise wastage and banning diversions of water for non-priority purposes can be some of the large-scale measures possible with equal participation of the Government and people alike. Conservation awareness among the local communities for wetlands and its flora-fauna can help in a long run.

On a smaller scale the villagers are doing their bit by consciously avoiding plastic litter, controlled fishing and adopting rowing instead of engines for tourist boats wherever possible. These are some of their simple but effective ways to stop draining these life giving wetlands.

Pallas’s Gull

Pallas's gull, also known as the Great Black-headed Gull, is a large powerful gull of saline, brackish, and fresh water bodies. The breeding adult has a black head with a thin incomplete crescent around the eye and a red-and-black-tipped bill. The non-breeding adults - which are the ones featured here - retain a partial “hood” of patchy black on the back of the head. The eye crescents and a flashing white rump help to distinguish first-winter birds from Herring-type gulls. Given their size the Pallas’s Gull can be readily separated by their size in any plumage from the smaller dark-headed gulls. As is the case with many gulls, it has traditionally been placed in the genus Larus. The scientific name is from Ancient Greek. Ichthyaetus is from ikhthus, "fish", and aetos, "eagle".

This species breeds in colonies in marshes & islands from southern Russia to Mongolia. It is migratory, wintering in the eastern Mediterranean, Arabia and India. This gull nests on the ground - as you can see in the photo above, laying between two and four eggs. It occurs in western Europe only as a vagrant. In Great Britain a recent review left a single occurrence in 1859 as the only acceptable record of this bird. The species also occurs as a vagrant in differing parts of the Indian Ocean, south of its normal range, and along the northern and eastern coasts of Africa, where it visits annually on an irregular basis.

The Pallas’s Gull is a very large gull, being easily the world's largest black-headed gull and the third largest species of gull in the world, after the Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) and the Glaucous Gull  (Larus hyperboreus). It measures 55–72 cm and weighs between 900–2000 grams with a 142 to 170 cm wingspan. The weight can vary from 0.96–2.1 kg, with an average of 1.6 kg in males and 1.22 kg in females. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 43.5 to 52 cm, the bill is 4.7 to 7.3 cm and the tarsus is 6.5 to 8.4 cm. One of the largest gulls, averaging nearly as large as Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus). Summer adults are unmistakable, since no other gull of this size has a black hood. The adults have grey wings and back, with conspicuous white "mirrors" at the wing tips. The legs are yellow and the bill is orangey-yellow with a red tip. Characteristically flat-crowned, with a long, slender, heavy bill, giving a triangular head shape. Deep-breasted with longer, slenderer and more pointed wings than other large gulls. The flight is ponderous and heron-like. The breeding adult has a typical hooded appearance, black from the face and throat to the nape, with conspicuous white eye-crescents; the mantle is pearl grey while the upper wing-coverts are a very pale grey. The flight-feathers are mostly white, primaries with conspicuous black subterminal marks and white tips. The bill is large and orange-yellow, becoming reddish distally, with subterminal black band and yellow tip. The legs are a fleshy greenish yellow, with orange webs and the iris is brown, with a thin red orbital ring. The non-breeding adult has a white head with a dusky area around the eye and over ear-coverts and a hind crown. The juvenile is dark brown above with prominent pale fringes, greyish-brown head and breast-sides and very pale below. The tail is white with a black terminal bar. First-winter male has a whiter head with a dark mask, similar to the non-breeding adult, but dark brown flight-feathers contrast with the grey mantle and black tail band. The tail band is retained during the second year but is often incomplete; the upper wing is grey with a broad black tip; in the second-summer they may develop a full black hood. In all other plumages, a dark mask through the eye indicates the vestiges of the hood. The call is a deep aargh cry. Young birds attain largely grey upperparts quite rapidly, but they take four years to reach maturity.

This bird has a deep, rather nasal flight-call which resembles the call of the Lesser Black-backed Gull. Although they are noisy at colonies, Pallas's gulls are mostly silent when breeding. These birds are predatory, taking fish, crustaceans, insects and even small mammals. The Pallas's gull is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Some recent authors place this species, along with the Relict Gull (L. relictus), Mediterranean Gull (L. melanocephalus), Sooty Gull (L. hemprichii), White-eyed Gull (L. leucophthalmus) and Audouin's gull (L. audouinii), in the genus Ichthyaetus (the “black-headed gulls”, even if some lack black head). Despite its large size, this species’ behavioural repertoire appears typical of that of “hooded gulls”, although considered distinctive by some; possibly a link between the “hooded” and the “white-headed gulls”. The Pallas’s Gull is monotypic.

The Pallas’s Gull breeds in a few very small, scattered localities from the Black Sea (Crimea, Danube Delta) East to Lake Balkhash and spottily to NW Mongolia; also Tibet, as well as North China (Gansu, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia). It winters on the coasts of the East Mediterranean, Red Sea, South Caspian Sea and North Indian Ocean East to Myanmar, rarely to Thailand; also inland on the Gangetic Plain (North India) and in South Central Ethiopia.

Their preferred habitat are coasts and major rivers. It is attracted to anthropogenic food sources such as harbours, fish ponds and rubbish dumps. It breeds in colonies on barren islands in fresh and saline lakes and inland seas in generally arid areas like the Ujni Backwaters where I photographed them in their non-breeding plumage.

The Pallas’s Gull is generally migratory, although some immatures may over summer in their winter range. Most winter in the South Caspian Sea, with smaller numbers in Israel (rare), Ethiopia (32–111 birds in mid 1970s), Persian Gulf, South Iran, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and West Thailand. Locally a fairly common migrant and winter visitor in Nepal, but uncommon in Bhutan; there are also rare records in Asia from Hong Kong, East China, Korea and Vietnam. In Japan it is a rare winter visitor to Kyushu, where a few regularly winter on the Kuma River in Kumamoto. In Kerala, South India, arrivals are in November or early December and departures in April–May. They have been recently discovered to migrate through Red Sea to islands there and in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, some reaching Kenyan lakes and a few, mainly immatures, in Dec–Jan, recorded on coasts South to Tanzania. There is some westward movement to the Middle East and East Mediterranean, in Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. Migration is also recorded through North West & Central China (Xinjiang, Sichuan). Five birds satellite-tracked from their breeding colonies at L Qinghai, NW China, moved to wintering areas in Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh and NE India); their autumn migration started in August, took an average of 99 days, and covered a mean distance of 2990 km, while the return migration in spring started in March, averaged 38 days, and covered a mean distance of 2556 km. There are occasional records inland in Asia on large lakes and rivers, e.g. c. 100 at Hamun-i-Puzak, SW Afghanistan. They are increasingly recorded in Europe, mostly inland. There are frequent records from Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland, and there is now a very small but regular winter presence in Sicily. The Gulf of Sirte, Libya, has also attracted a few in recent winters. Vagrants have reached most countries of C Europe, as well as Morocco and Tunisia, with single records from Canary Is (1995) and Madeira. However, they are extremely rare in W Europe, where there have been records in Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. One in March 2014 at Albufera de Valencia was the first for Spain and perhaps the same bird returned to the same site in 2015.

They feed chiefly on fish (particularly dead fish) and crustaceans, as well as insects, small mammals, birds, eggs and reptiles. In the Volga Delta 88% of diet was fish, including bream (Abramis brama) and carp (Cyprinus carpio) up to 500 g; also insects and ground squirrels. On Kitai I, rodents (mainly Spermophilus pygmaeus) comprised 78% of diet. In cooler weather they eat seeds. Frequently piratical on a variety of species. They have been known to follow fishing boats; taking fish offal in harbours and are one of the most solitary gulls. The Pallas’s Gull often flies long distances from colonies to feed aerially on swarming insects.

The Pallas’s Gull returns to colonies in early March laying from early April. They exhibit distinctive courtship displays include raising back feathers, and a howling long call. Colonies consist of 70–3000 pairs, rarely fewer than ten pairs; sometimes near but not among L. argentatus; single pairs always nest with other gull species and not solitarily. In the largest colonies the Pallas’s tends to form subgroups of up to 200 nests; small aggregations often linear, parallel to shoreline. The colonies are often dense, with nest rims 40 cm apart, especially in the centre of colony; at the periphery they can be 1–4·5 m apart. The use of breeding areas is dependent on fluctuating water levels. The nest is comprised of dried aquatic plants and feathers, often on bare rock substrate, sometimes among reeds or other vegetation, or vegetated sand dunes. Very little aggression is observed between neighbours, although gakkering is sometimes observed. They normally lay two eggs (1–3) which have an incubation period of c. 25 days with the female sitting for longer spells than the male. The chick is creamy buff or a silvery white and recognized by parents by the fifth day. They may leave their territory after c. 5 days. The chicks form a dense crèche at 7+ days when parents are absent or the colony is disturbed. The first breeding is usually not until 4–5 years.

The Pallas’s Gull is not globally threatened and is classified as Least Concern. The total population is unknown but that of the Black and Caspian Seas and SW Asia is estimated at > 100,000 birds, with a further 25,000–100,000 birds breeding in C Asia. The European population, in Russia and Ukraine, is estimated at 25,100–28,300 pairs. Numerous on and north of the Caspian Sea. In Kazakhstan at least 1715 pairs nested at Tengiz-Korgalzhyn wetlands in 2000. It bred in Azerbaijan until the early or mid 20th century. A survey in 2008 of breeding waterbirds at lakes on Changtang Plateau, Tibet, found 3398 individuals at 34 lakes, with active nests on islands in Bangong, Dong, Cuoe, Dangreyong and Peng lakes.

The global population is declining. At some colonies nest predation by expanding populations of L. cachinnans cause increased losses. The numbers breeding at L Qinghai, China, has apparently fallen from > 87,000 in 1970s to c. 15,000 in 2006; 929 individuals were among 6000 waterbirds that died during an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza at L Qinghai in 2005 and this species may be implicated in the transmission of the virus elsewhere, e.g. to Bangladesh. The beneficial impact to agriculture of its destruction of insects and rodents is considered to outweigh the consequences of its depredation on commercial fish, but it is still persecuted in some regions. Eggs and young are sometimes taken by mammals, e.g. wild boar (Sus scrofa), and colonies are subject to flooding following storms.

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