During the winter season in North India, many migratory birds come here from even intensely cold areas like Europe. Most of these birds come here to avoid intense cold and availability of food. Some raise chicks here and by the time temperatures become high here they go back.
Many ponds in Punjab present beautiful scene with the arrival of these visitors. Some birds pictures from one such huge pond.
During these winter months, a number of migratory birds visits India from the countries where winter is very severe and also food availability is low. These annual visitors add colour to the season.
Many of the migratory birds are water waders and land in the lakes , big pools and other water bodies. Amongst these are greater Cormorants. They are huge birds and expert fishers. They hunt in groups and there is great jostling and fighting for the catch snatching.
In older days the trained Cormorants were used for river fishing in Japan and China. A snare was tied at the end of the neck which in addition to keeping the cormorant under leash also prevented the Cormorants from eating the fish except for smaller ones. As soon as the bird caught a fish, it was taken out from water and made to spit out the fish.
Nowadays, it is only a tourist attraction.
These days a number of these big birds have descended on Sulkhna Lake in Chandigarh. I took some pictures.
A group fishing
Sun soaking on a tree
