less number of birds visited the famous Chilika lake in the State this winter than last year’s with a total of 140 species thronging the biggest waterfowl habitat in the country.
The annual bird count conducted in the 1,100 sq km lake registered about 7,19,262 birds. About 8.77 lakh birds had visited the lake last winter. The wildlife personnel have spotted maximum number of Gadwall birds.
“It was found during our count that the number of Gadwall birds compared to others was high,” said Khorda DFO Akshaya Patnaik. At least 20 teams comprising officials of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), State Wildlife officials, ornithologists and Forest personnel were engaged to conduct the count.
Generally, the winged visitors from far off places, including the Caspian Sea, the lake Baikal, remote parts of Russia, the Central and South East Asia, ladakh and the Himalayas, visit the lake every winter for feeding and roosting, besides getting a respite from severe cold at native places and start their homeward journey with the onset of summer. They usually begin arriving at the lake from September every year.
This year, the winged visitors too came to the lake by nearly a month late due to the cyclonic storm Phailin which hit the coastal Odisha on October 12.