On Altynai's wintering grounds (Lakhundar, Sunday, December 7, 2003)
The sun was slowly rising on the horizon and the small fires in the streets, warming shivering villagers a little while ago, were now nothing more than white ash with last bits of smoke coming up from them. The streets were becoming busy as usual. We fought our way through crowds of people, buffaloes, cows, pigs, dogs and every now and then had a hard time getting out of the way of a two-wheel carriage towed by a pair of cows. Almost all the cows had their horns painted with some colour and had their foreheads decorated. We were slowly approaching the centre of the area where Altynai chose to spend her winter.
We caught the signal of her ground transmitter for the first time at about 9 a.m. From then, we would catch the signal and even see her many times until the evening. We found her slightly further to the north than most satellite locations showed. She was at a water stream under a small dam called Lakhundar on a river of the same name and was probably feeding. After several unsuccessful attempts to drive closer, we set off on foot. The signal grew stronger just before eleven o'clock - Altynai took off and was somewhere above us in the air. Mahesh was first to spot a black stork, then a little while later another -fifteen of them flew over our heads towards the dam.
The storks' favourite place appears to be a peninsula running into the Lakhundar dam. We observed them from a safe distance over the lake, as they were standing or walking on the peninsula bank. Someone must have disturbed them around noon. Nineteen storks took off at once and circled over the peninsula for a relatively long time before returning to the ground. At half past three, something disturbed them again and we counted 25 of them. This time they did not return and Altynai spent almost three hours flying probably over the places where the Argos satellite system points most of the time.
We find ourselves in countryside with rolling hills and very intensive agriculture. Fields and pastures with an occasional acacia are almost everywhere, patches of marshland and groups of trees and shrubs are scarce. There is hardly a place where people would not appear several times a day around here...
Check regularly for fresh reports on Altynai, Indian countryside, as well as the numerous bird species living here.
