Kaggaladu - Phase 2 Visit 4

Date of visit: 24 April 2010

There was excitement in the air even before we got to Kaggaladu. This was the first time I would see the young ones!!! When we got there, my excitement got a bit dulled because of the reduction in the number of birds on the main trees. Harsha spotted chicks in the nests and directed my attention to them. It took me a little time to figure out that those were chicks because they were quite big! A chick is almost the size of a fully grown hen, of course with a much longer beak. And they dont have the "painted" appearance as their parents during the initial part of their life. The locals told us that they will be ready to fly away in two months time. Amazing stuff!

(In pic below : An adult painted stork with a young one)

But the bird count has dropped from our last visit a month ago. Now we didnt spot more than 100 birds, when we had spotted 250 birds last time around.

A couple of chicks have also fallen from the nests, and these get abandoned unfortunately. The forest officers have not paid a visit recently so there is no one to take care of the abandoned ones. Also, the locals are afraid to touch them with a fear that they may be charged with offense. There is a need for regular visits by forest officials at this vulnerable time for the stork community.

There are issues of road work and water scarcity, which we still have to look into in detail.

(In pic: Harsha picks up a chick that had fallen from its nest and has been abandoned)

We hope to post a video about the birds soon on youtube. Also, if there are individuals near Tumkur or Sira who will be interested in working on this issue, kindly contact us.

Team members who visited Kaggaladu: Harsha and Adithya