This story is from January 28, 2020

Birders sight Grey wagtail, Pallas' grass warbler in Chennai

When Saravanan Balasundaram's participation in the Chennai Bird Race was confirmed, his joy knew no bounds.He was one among the first-timers who would count birds in the city on Republic Day.
Birders sight Grey wagtail, Pallas' grass warbler in Chennai
Pallas’s grass warbler
CHENNAI: When Saravanan Balasundaram's participation in the Chennai Bird Race was confirmed, his joy knew no bounds. He was one among the first-timers who would count birds in the city on Republic Day.
Saravanan began his day with a visit to the Perumbakkam marshland at 6.15am. After spending three hours with a five-member team, he was taken to the Pallikaranai marshland by team leader Yuvan, an experienced bird watcher.
"It was an amazing experience. We were able to sight 82 species. Except Yuvan, all the others in the team were newcomers," he said.
Vikas Madhav, one of the young judges of the race, said grey wagtail was sighted and recorded as a passage migrant on earlier occasions. But this time, the bird had stayed in the city for sometime. Moreover, the area where it was sighted - Semmancherry - was an unusual location for this bird. "This is the first time this bird was sighted in the suburbs. In 2013, we saw the bird in Siruthavoor forests of Chengalpet," Vikas said.
Coordinator of the race K V Sudhakar said that compared to last year, the number of teams participating in the race was more. In 2019, more than 40 teams that took part in the event.
A total of 171 species were sighted by participants this year. About four teams sighted more than 100 species and the highest number sighted by a single team was 109. The 'bird of the day' was the grey wagtail sighted at Semmenchery. Other notable sightings included white wagtail, pallas' grasshopper warbler, Asian pied starling at Pallikaranai marshland and the southern grey shrike at Perumbakkam wetland, Sudhakar said.
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