A bird haven for all seasons

To mark World Wetlands Day on 2 February, we visit Gajoldoba in West Bengal and try to spot its 120 species of birds

- Anirudh Nair

The endless expanse of the Teesta river stretched before me until the horizon. The wind rippled the surface of the water as my guide rowed against the current. Enormous grey clouds loomed above us, with the vast Teesta barrage behind us. I was at Gajoldoba, a hamlet in the Jalpaiguri district of northern West Bengal. The massive Kangchenjunga serves as a backdrop for this picturesque settlement in the Dooars region of the Himalayan foothills. A reservoir formed by the barrage welcomes hundreds of migratory birds every year to the village.

Taposh Mondal, a self-taught birder and local resident who has been guiding tourists at Gajoldoba since 2013, was keen to show me the migratory waterfowl which had lingered past their wintering season. The tide dictated the movement of the birds as they flew to and from the reservoir and river. A flock of lesser whistling ducks were among those reaping the river's bounty. We could hear the whistles of the pale brown birds assembled on a river island from a distance.

Mondal hushed my attempts to gather trivia about the gregarious ducks when he saw a pair of common shelducks. It was uncommon for these migratory ducks, with prominent red bills, to stay on past the winter, he said. Their striking black and white plumage contrasted sharply with the grey sky reflected in the river.

On our cruise upriver, we saw more ducks: the gadwall, common pochard, ruddy shelduck and northern shoveler. Migratory birds arrive in Gajoldoba from their breeding grounds in Ladakh, Baluchistan, Central Asia, Mongolia, Russia, Siberia and Europe at the onset of winter in the subcontinent. The ducks we saw were the few that had delayed the perilous journey back to their breeding grounds.