Vedanthangal (pronounced Ved-uhn-tangle) Bird Sanctuary is about 85km south-west of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, southern India (which sounds all sounds very exotic don’t you think?), and is centred around a 30ha ‘tank‘, an artificial lake used for crop irrigation, that is visited by tens of thousands of breeding waterbirds in late-winter.

It’s actually India’s oldest bird sanctuary, with quite a fascinating history. Local villagers realised hundreds of years ago that the guano from the thousands of storks and cormorants that arrived like clockwork after the monsoons to breed was enriching the water with natural fertiliser, and that crop yields were higher where this rather smelly water was channelled into the fields. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement and all was well until towards the end of the 18th century when British soldiers arrived and began doing what the British always do: shooting everything within range. The villagers were so outraged they complained to local officials and won protection for their birds. In 1936 the lake was officially declared a sanctuary, in 1962 it was given the legal status of reserved forest under the Madras Forest Act, and - finally - in 1988 it was given full protection and declared a Nature Sanctuary under the Wildlife (protection) Act.

A nice story, eh, and a reminder that local people who actually use an area’s natural resources usually have the strongest reasons to protect those resources…

Dawn at Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, December 2008

Having said that Nature Sanctuaries in India do tend to be run a touch idiosyncratically, and Vedanthangal is apparently no different. I left my hotel at 04:30 to get to Vedanthangal at first light thinking this would be the least disturbed time of day (it was very beautiful as the image above shows), only to arrive to a sound-system blaring out songs and greetings to the morning - and ’song’ is a very generous way of describing the wailing and distorted sounds the locals were inflicting on the air around this venerable sanctuary. Birds were flying everywhere, and I have no doubt at all that this unique and disturbing alarm clock was the reason. It was a real shame actually and if anyone reading this can explain to me just why it was necessary to make this noise right by a protected wildlife area I’d love to know…

Which must be as good as any time to actually start talking about the birds themselves.

Vedanthangal is actually only ‘birdy’ between November and early Feb. Huge numbers (apparently up to 30,000, but I’ve no way of verifying whether that figure is [still] accurate) of birds arrive just after the monsoons, and peak in mid-January when migrant ducks like Pintail and Garganey arrive(interestingly I saw very, very few ducks on my visit). For the rest of the year there is hardly anything here at all bar the resident Moorhens and a few cormorants. When birds are here and breeding is in full swing most of the action (which is spectacular) is focussed on thick clumps of Barringtonia that fill the centre of the tank, and at this time of the year are weighed down with enormous numbers of Black-headed Ibis, Asian Open-billed Storks, Indian Cormorants, Little Cormorants, Eurasian Spoonbills, Grey Herons, Black-crowned Night Herons, Little and Great Egrets, and Spot-billed Pelicans - with smaller numbers of Indian Darters, Painted Storks and Glossy Ibis. Which is well worth an 85km taxi drive and an early start, wouldn’t you say?

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

 

The embankment path along the western edge of the tank

Most of the breeding birds are quite a distance from the one path that visitors can use (and the path itself only goes along one edge of the tank between a narrow sliver of trees, though there are a few observation platforms which give unobstructed views across the water), but there are almost always a variety of species flying out to the surrounding farmland or bringing nesting material back to their mates and it’s pretty simple to get some decent photos as they do…

Adult Black-headed Ibises Threskiornis melanocephalus

Juvenile Black-headed Ibis Threskiornis melanocephalus (note narrow black wing-tips, shorter bill, and less extensive “black head”)

 

Grey Heron Ardea cinerea

 

Spot-billed Pelican Pelecanus philippensis

 

Asian Open-billed Stork Anastomus oscitans

 

Eurasian/White Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia

 

Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus

As I mentioned previously the tank is just part of the attraction here, and the adjoining farmland and paddy fields are well worth exploring too (in fact I probably spent as much time in the nearby countryside as I did round the tank, if I’m honest mainly because if you walked far enough you could almost get out of earshot of the loud speakers!).

The description of the site given in Krys Kazmierczak and Raj Singh’s “A Birdwatchers guide to India” lists some really cracking species including four cuckoos, Indian Courser, Indian Pitta, White-browed Bulbul and a whole bevy of raptors. Lists like these do of course tend to be on the optimistic side (and have been collated over many previous visits) but I certainly didn’t manage to find anything like that number of ’specials’.

Having said that there were certainly plenty of birds. Most of what I saw was common (at least in southern India!) and would be completely expected in this sort of habitat, and included Jerdon’s Bushlark (which has a very un-lark song, which must contain amongst the highest notes in the animal kingdom), White-browed Wagtail, Paddyfield Pipit, Indian Roller, Loten’s Sunbird, Grey Francolin, Common Koel, Common Hawk Cuckoo, Indian Pond Heron (all of which were in non-breeding plumage), plenty of wintering Blyth’s Reed Warblers, and good numbers of the beautiful White-breasted Kingfishers. Either I’m losing my eyesight or they just weren’t present, but there were no raptors at all - which was very surprising considering how open and full of potential prey the fields were (though I did see Common Kestrel and Shikra along the 12km road back to the main highway).

 

White-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis

 

Indian Pond Heron Ardeola grayii

 

Jerdon’s Bushlark Mirafra affinis

 

Common Hawk Cuckoo Cuculus varius (also known as the “brainfever bird” because of its ‘fevered’ and incessant call - click the image for an mp3 recording I made earlier in the year).

 

Female Common Koel Eudynamys scolopacea (a species of cuckoo, the male is all black)

I had to get back to Chennai for a flight back to London in the early evening so didn’t spend more than about five hours at Vedanthangal. I imagine that with a really thorough and concentrated search I’d have found more species but new ones weren’t exactly thrusting themselves forward by mid-morning. It was thoroughly enjoyable though, and perhaps a proper morning’s birding at just this one site is about right.

One of my colleagues on the crew (a non-birder) also went out to Vedanthangal and came back saying that he was pretty unimpressed. I can kind of see his point - if you’re not impressed by the hustle and bustle of thousands of breeding waterbirds then this probably isn’t the place for you as there’s not much else out here to look at (the on-site stalls are not going to inspire too much, though I had two fabulous cups of proper “chai” or hot tea at one of them which is just about the most refreshing drink in the whole of India). However, if you’re like most of the birders I know it’s definitely worth a visit - just bring earplugs if you intend to arrive early and be aware that by about 10:00 am a surprising number of visitors and children will have joined you on the embankment path making birding the trees along the path a touch more difficult.

Oh, and look out for the monkeys here too: they’re used to snatching things off the visitors and were very bold. I had no problems at all with them, but one young girl flapped at one too violently and almost got bitten. I’ve no idea what infections you could pick up from the bite of a monkey that’s been feeding alongside a guano-rich water tank, but finding out at a Bird Sanctuary 85km from Chennai is probably not the wisest move you could make…

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, December 2008