Viva Wetlands: Eaglefest

I started 2023 birding with a trip to Viva wetlands. This was my first trip to this hotspot. Viva Wetlands are located in Virar, which can be reached by road from Mumbai. We chose to travel by train as the hotspot is located close to Virar train station. Our group  met at the start of the trail at 8AM in the morning. It was a very warm day for January so I had removed my jacket before starting the trail.

The trail was led by one of my favorite birders, Amol. He has been birding in this area for long and I have traveled to Mamachi Wadi beach with him in September-2022. He led us on a long walking path through grassland and wetland habitat. The entire area gets flooded during monsoons but it was dry with walking paths in January. There was soft soil at places in which birds had made track marks overnight. It was fun walking next to bird tracks.

The first highlight of the day was Blyth’s pipit which Amol helped us identify in flight. I got a glimpse. My second important sighting was a Bluethroat which I had never seen before. As the name says, the tiny bird has a blue throat. We saw several of them in a garbage dump. While it may look dirty, several birds come to garbage dumps for foraging. Hence, don’t be surprised if you find birders looking closely at garbage dumps. It was funny for me in the beginning but with several trips, I have become used to birder behaviour!!

We moved further to a point where Amol said there would be raptors. And he was so right. Several of these birds of prey are winter migrants to India and we were lucky to see Indian Spotted Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle and Imperial Eagle. The raptors in flight are very difficult to differentiate and I am still learning to identify them. The trail was great because we saw so many raptors together. Hopefully, I learnt to identify them on the trail. A short Toed Snake Eagle was right in front of us and it showed its hovering behavior. It was a great day spent on outskirts of Mumbai.

Ebird list here

https://ebird.org/india/checklist/S125668089

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