Flights of fancy caught on camera at Dhanauri wetland

Dhanauri is one of the best birding sites, home to about 211 species of which 119 are resident species.

From the trumpeting calls of sarus cranes to the croak of a beautiful pied kingfisher flaunting a black and white plumage, a group of over 100 birders from the Delhi Bird Photographers’ (DBP) group celebrated its 300th walk anniversary in Greater Noida’s Dhanuari wetland.

A couple of greater flamingos traverse through shallow waters. (Photo Credit: Yogesh Kumar)

The bird lovers, who have been chasing winged beauties since the past five years, said they chose Dhanauri for their anniversary walk as the wetland is one of the few across NCR that would allow such a large group of birders to spot the fowls without spooking them.

Another reason was that Dhanauri is one of the best birding sites, home to about 211 species of which 119 are resident species. The birders, however, also raised concerns about threats to the wetland, saying that activities such as construction continue in the absence of legal protection to the habitat.

A pheasant-tailed jacana at the wetland.

“There are some good birding locations across NCR such as Sulatanpur, Basai, Surajpur, Okhla and the Najafgarh jheel, to count a few, but Dhanauri is special. Rather, it is the best because of its sheer size. We were able to divide bird lovers into several groups to spot birds at different locations. Also, in the past few years, Dhanauri has offered sightings of maximum number of species, and of course nowhere else in NCR you would see a larger flock of Sarus cranes,” said Mathews Joseph, a bird photography enthusiast who founded DBP, which has 9,000 photographers – beginners to expert level – as members.

A purple heron, one of the water birds at Dhanauri wetland.

“Dhanauri is great during any season but watching birds flock to this location during monsoon is an altogether different experience. The best treat was watching the courtship dance of the sarus cranes, which the male sarus crane does to attract the female,” said Ashok Appu, a Delhi-based bird enthusiast and photographer.

Apart from a variety of water birds and waders – including bitterns, storks, herons, spoonbills, egrets, ibises, terns, ducks, geese, jacanas – what made their day was the action of some pied kingfishers, said the birders.

“Though it’s a local and resident species, we have never spotted a pied kingfisher at Dhanauri before. It was a delight to see it fishing and the capturing the same on the camera,” said Joseph.

The teams also photographed several pairs of purple herons, pheasant-tailed jacanas, grey-headed swamphens, white-breasted waterhens, whiskered terns, knob-billed ducks, glossy ibis, cotton teals, pheasant-tailed jacana, and wire-taield swallows, to name a few.

“Dhanauri is one of the most valuable wetlands in northern India but it is threatened by a number of issues,” Joseph added.