An avian celebrity and some star-struck birders!

On an impulse, when you travel fourteen hours from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and back, plus another four hours from Ahmedabad to Nalsarovar and back just to spend less than five hours to see one individual bird, then that bird just HAS to be special!

The recent ‘vagrant’ sighting of a lone Sabine’s gull - Xema sabini, in Ahmedabad’s Nalsarovar, stirred up a lot of excitement among the birding community. So, when my dear friend Adesh Shivkar called me to say he was going to Ahmedabad the next day, he was making me an offer I couldn’t refuse! Fellow birders Ramesh Shenai, Akshay Shinde and Amit Biswas also joined in.

Everyone knows how difficult it is to get train tickets at the last minute. But the stars seemed to have aligned in our favour as the bookings were as smooth as the Vande Bharat! (On which we had our return journey – all thanks to Adesh’s skill at managing to get confirmed bookings each time 😉😉)

Latif our guide and Latif our driver (yes two separate individuals! Latif Alvani and Latif Beliem respectively) would accompany us to the bird’s location at Nalsarovar.

After a comfortable eight-and-a-half-hour journey on the Lokshakti Express, we reached Ahmedabad at the scheduled time of 4.15 a.m. A quick freshen up at the waiting room and we were off to Nalsarovar. Food is an important part of every birding trip and a nibble here and a peck there is always welcome at any time of the day. We wasted no time in letting Latif, our driver who picked us up from the station, know that we would stop for a quick breakfast somewhere on the way. But at such an early hour, the city was still awakening from its slumber. Where would five bright-eyed and bushy-tailed birders find food? Latif had the answer. “Poha khayenge sahab?” A collective “Haan, bhai!!” was thrown at him. From the moving vehicle, our bright but hungry eyes scanned the sides of the road for any signs of food. We must have driven for almost three quarters of an hour when we saw a thela gaadi heaped with fresh steaming poha a little ahead of our speeding vehicle. Latif probably wanted to confirm if we were serious about our need to eat. “Rukenge sahab?” “Chalega!” was our quick collective reply. And then, to our collective horror, Latif continued to drive past the poha thela gadi without stopping. Our wide-eyed gaze followed the sumptuous poha-stacked gaadi as we drove past, our collective jaws dropping to the floor! Latif had misunderstood our “chalega” for “we will go on”! Thankfully, another poha thela gadi was not too far and Latif was spared of our collective wrath.

Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary is a vast wetland, spread over an area of 120 square kilometers, nestled amidst the arid plains of Gujarat. The sanctuary, encompassing a vast lake and its surrounding wetlands, is a paradise for bird watchers. It is also designated as a Ramsar site in recognition of its ecological importance. It also acknowledges the socio-economic importance of the wetlands to the local communities who depend on them for their livelihoods. The beauty of this place lies in its varied habitats. At the centre is the sprawling freshwater lake and marshes that provide perfect breeding grounds for waterbirds. Islands dot the lake and are used as nesting and roosting sites by a variety of avian species. Along the periphery of the wetland, one finds dry grasslands and scrublands which are a haven for ground-dwelling birds like quails, pratincoles and sandgrouse.

We met our guide Latif Alvani at what is called the “chokdi” (chowk or four-way intersection) just before the bird sanctuary ticket counter. Latif, an experienced and avid bird-watcher himself, was bubbling with excitement. He had made elaborate plans to put the five hours we had in hand, to maximum productive use. The list of main species to be seen were Sabine’s gull- Xema sabini (ofcourse!), small buttonquail - Turnix sylvaticus and white-winged tern - Chlidonias leucopterus. After some discussion, our collective decision was to head straight for the gull.

We reached what is called the fishing point in great anticipation. I had imagined it would take us some time to locate our star visitor, after scanning the area with our binoculars. But all of us were in for a pleasant surprise when we found our avian celebrity merrily walking around on the wet grass at the edge of the water, oblivious of our presence. It took just five minutes for us to tick off our celebrity lifer! He was busy feeding on tilapia fish and some small crustaceans. Migratory birds have a long and often arduous journey ahead of them. They must therefore stack up on enough energy which they will need on their journey ahead.

We lost no time in approaching him as close as we could without disturbing him, and then doing a shashtang namaskar before him like a devotee would in front of his god! Well, our shashtang namaskar had nothing to do with devotion to God. It was the only way to get the best shot! A low angle shot of a bird on the ground is considered a good shot aesthetically.

Sabine’s gulls are among the smallest gulls of the world, and undertake the longest migration of any gull, a trans-equatorial journey between their Arctic breeding grounds and their wintering areas in the southern hemisphere. Birds from Alaska and Siberia migrate south along Pacific Coast to spend winter off western South America. Those from eastern Canada and Greenland mostly migrate eastward across North Atlantic and then south, wintering mostly off South Africa. India is nowhere in their migratory path. 

In ornithology, a vagrant bird is one that appears outside of its normal breeding or wintering range, often in a place it is not typically found. These birds are essentially lost or disoriented.

But a study published by scientists in marineornithology.org in 2021 (Prado et al.: Vagrancy in Sabine’s Gulls) suggests that they may not, in fact, be ‘disoriented’ birds.

According to the study, Sabine’s Gulls outside of their main wintering grounds are not necessarily vagrant birds. The scientists argued that these birds could have reached these ‘unusual’ areas through genuine migration routes used by other species. The fact that the majority of records are associated with productive/fishing zones (and are also in areas with low or no at-sea effort for bird surveys), and that juveniles and young adults typically migrate further, suggests that some individuals may search for productive areas for wintering outside of the main, or well-known, destinations. Thus, the findings suggest that at least some individuals of Sabine's Gull, rather than being ‘disoriented', might be in genuine areas of migration corresponding to their life stage, therefore expanding the known distribution range of this species. Our celebrity visitor certainly didn’t look disoriented!

Apart from the Sabine's Gull, there were a grey-headed swamphens, black-winged stilts, whistling ducks, whiskered terns, little grebes, ibises, egrets, spoonbills and more than hundred greater flamingos among other species. Black-breasted weavers in the adjoining grasslands would soon begin weaving their homes and start their families.

Black-breasted weaver

After spending a full hour with our avian celebrity and the other feathered folk, Latif suggested we go for the small buttonquail. So, we bid Xema Sabini farewell and headed straight for Chaurathali. Chaurathali is an arid scrubland which is ideal for ground-dwelling birds like the buttonquail.

Small buttonquails are ground-dwelling birds that resemble true quails but are not closely related. At ten centimeters, they are pretty small. Often found in grassy or scrubby areas, they are notoriously difficult to spot due to their cryptic colouring. They are known for their unique breeding behaviour where females are polyandrous, meaning they mate with multiple males. The males incubate the eggs and care for the young.

Delicate prinia 

Latif had located the bird previously and knew the exact spot where we would see the bird in the vast dry landscape where everything looked the same. Like a strict school-master Latif asked us to sit quietly in one place without making a sound or any movement. We obeyed like good children. We could hear the constant “did-you-do-it” rants of the red-wattled lapwings. A few doves sat on the dry branches of the acacia trees. We spoke only if necessary, in very soft whispers.  Suddenly there was a burst of excitement as Ramesh sighted a Laggar Falcon. The ‘good children’ now became fidgety. And how could we not? A laggar always elicits enthusiastic and often animated reactions, even from a seasoned birder.  “Itna awaaz karenge to kaise dikhega?” Latif was losing his cool. The buttonquail is a very shy bird and remains skulking inside bushes on even the slightest disturbance. We settled down again only to be disturbed once more by a delicate prinia! 

Oriental Pratincole

Latif was keeping watch on the time. More than our sightings, he felt responsible for us getting back to Ahmedabad station on time for our train back home. He suggested we leave the buttonquail for now and try for the white-winged tern. We got into the car and started moving to the boating point where there were chances of seeing the tern. From the moving vehicle we saw an oriental pratincole sitting on its nest on the ground. 

The bird was alerted on seeing us and flew a little distance away from the nest. We stopped and photographed it quickly and then left it to defend its nest. 

Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse (male)

Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse (female)

A male and female chestnut-bellied sandgrouse were foraging on the dry scrubland. We got decent shots of them from the vehicle itself, as getting down would have chased them away. Adesh, who was now travelling with Latif on his bike noticed something on the ground which he thought was a nightjar. Soon, both the vehicles were back at the same spot from where we left. But what Adesh thought was a nightjar turned out to be sandgrouse. But explorations like these always spring surprises at you. And that ‘U’ turn for the nightjar turned out to be our lucky turn of events. We were destined to see the small buttonquail it seems! Latif had spotted it, and, this time, he was not the strict school master. He had got a fleeting glimpse of the buttonquail as it darted from one bush to another and suggested we wait for it to come out again. This species rarely takes to wing, and is often seen running from one bush to another. In that split second, if we were lucky, we would get a sighting of it. So, we waited in eager anticipation. Ramesh, Akshay and Amit were in shashtang namaskar position once more, with their cameras, ready to shoot. A hilarious game ensued. The small cryptic bird soon appeared at the edge of a small thorny bush. All our eyes were glued to it. It emerged reluctantly and made a dash to the other bush and disappeared once more. It ran quicker than a click of a camera! Our prostrating friends had to take new positions. As soon as our cameramen took their positions on the ground, the button-sized wonder would make a dash to another bush and vanish from plain view. This continued for some time till we decided to leave the little fellow undisturbed. Latif’s eye was on the watch.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

We finally arrived at boating point. There were plenty of coots and black-winged stilts. Pheasant tailed jacanas in their splendid breeding plumage were a feast to the eyes. Latif told us that we would have to wade through knee deep water in order to reach the place where there were chances of seeing the white-winged tern. I politely declined the offer. I would never be able to survive the five-and-a-half-hour journey in an airconditioned train with my pants wet! So I, alongwith Adesh, Ramesh and Amit, who also decided not to get their legs wet, watched several whiskered terns already in their breeding plumage, a huge flock of about two hundred greater and lesser flamingos and several little grebes dabbling in the shallow waters, as Akshay decided to wet his legs to try his luck with the tern. Latif accompanied him. While he managed to get a glimpse of the tern, the bird was too far "in Pandharpur" for him to get a good photograph and Akshay had to return disappointed even after having braved the crossing. But he was relieved that he had ticked it off on his life list. It was soon time to leave.

As we started to leave, a pied kingfisher flew past flaunting his beautiful monochrome body. Another surprise visitor gave us a parting shot. A yellow bittern!

Those five hours, since the time we landed in Ahmedabad, flew past at lightening speed. We must be on our way now. Latif and Latif had given us something we will cherish forever. Our hunger to catch a glimpse of a celebrity avian visitor having been satiated, it was time to satiate the hunger in our bellies again! This time Latif had no excuses and there were no misunderstandings!! He dropped us off close to the station where we could get some snacks and we bid him good-bye.

Vande Bharat took us home in a little more than half the time we spent on our overnight journey from Mumbai.

The day after we came back to Mumbai, Adesh got the news that Xema Sabini was not seen that day. As the saying goes “samay se pehle aur naseeb se jyada kisi ko kuch nahi milta”. True! We were destined to be there just on time to catch a glimpse of a celebrity avian visitor.

Have a safe flight home Xema Sabini!! And thank you for visiting us! 

Latif Beliem (our driver), Akshay Shinde, myself, Adesh Shivkar, Latif Alvani (our guide),
Amit Biswas and the 'masked man' Ramesh Shenai

Nivedita Kothare

Nalsarovar - 10th June 2025