2. The coming of the cold season in the Indian sub continent brings with it bird migration – a journey that touches us all as millions of winged creatures run over, rather, fly over this entire land mass
3. Where ever one is, be it city, town or village: on the coast, on the banks of a river or that of a lake, in the grasslands or in the forests, you cannot miss these birds
4. Millions of winged denizens from the northern latitudes, flying away from the freezing cold, travel huge distances, traveling through the Himalayan passes, occasionally flying over these mighty mountains to the warmth and comfort of the subcontinent.
5. The diversity too is astounding, be it colour, shape or size. There are the sparrow sized wagtails and also the cranes that stand nearly four feet tall; waders that inhibit the shallow margins of water bodies; ducks like the pintail (they have long pin-like feathers projecting beyond the tail) and the shovellers (they have a shovel shaped beak) and also the harriers (those graceful and powerful hunters on the wing), preying on unsuspecting smaller birds, lizards and frogs
6. It is also a huge longitudinal canvas that these birds fly in from: Germany in the West (about 10 E) to the shores of Lake Bailkal in Russia (about 110 E) in the East, funneling in, as it were into the landmass of the subcontinent.
7. These insights into and information about bird migration have come mainly from bird ringing, when birds with small, light rings around their legs are caught again in a distant land.
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9. A lot of planning and care goes into the migratory journey that birds make every year .
