and other on Byet Island, , western

ABDUL JAMIL URFI

Departmentof EnvironmentalBiology, School of EnvironmentalStudies, Universityof , Delhi 110007, India, e-marl:ajurfi@rediffmafi. com (Permanentaddress for correspondence:A-270, Jamia Nagar, Okhla, New Delhi 110025, India.)

Urfi, A.J. 2002. Wadersand other wetland birds on Byet Dwarka Island,Gulf of Kutch, westernIndia. Study Group Bull. 99:31-34.

ByetDwarka, a 25 km2 islandin theGulf of Kutch,India, regularly supports a wintering population of over 30 wader speciesas well as a wide variety of heronsand egretsand other wildlife. A shortseries of obser- vationsof EurasianOystercatchers suggest that their intakerates are ratherlow comparedwith thoserecorded in NW ;possibly a reflectionof lower energyrequirements in this sitewith high winter temperatures. Thoughthe islandis unspoiltat present,there is the threatof major pollution,both from nearbyindustry and oil spills.

INTRODUCTION It is also famousfor the temple of Raani Vaas, which is frequentedby hundredsof pilgrimsevery day. The othersig- The State of in westernIndia is importantfor resi- nificant activity on the islandis natureeducation camps that dent,wintering and passage migrant waders. As severalstud- are organisedto educateschool and college studentsabout ies have shown,there is both a high -diversityas well the marine environment. These take place on a stretch of as a great abundanceof wadersin this (AWC Report beachknown as Dunni Point and, during the studyperiod, 1997). This can be attributedpartly to the presenceof sev- were coordinated by the author on behalf of Sundarvan eral freshwaterand coastalwetland habitats and partly to the Nature Discovery Center, . fact that the region lies alongthe major migration-routeinto The climate of Byet Dwarka and Okha is benign.January the to the west of the is the coolestmonth of the year, but eventhen the minimum (Khacher 1996). Despite the importanceof the region, this and maximum temperaturerange is only 19øCto 25øC (Fig. avifaunal diversity has not been adequately documented, 2). The dominantvegetation is Prosopissp., Acacia sp. and especiallyin the numerousand isolated islands off the coast. Euphorbia sp. with a few other tree speciessuch as Neem This is unfortunatebecause many waderhabitats in Gujarat Azadirachta indica and Ficus sp. scatteredabout. The inter- are underthreat from a variety of human-relatedfactors. tidal zone supportsa wide variety of sponges,jellyfish, Althoughthe nominaterace of the EurasianOystercatcher pens, sea anemones,bristled worms, molluscs,barnacles, Haematopus ostralegus ostralegushas been extensively crabs, sea cucumbers and fish (including mudskippers studiedin (Goss-Custard1996), very little Boleopthalmussp.). The main inter-tidal habitatsare sandy information is available about the race that winters on the beaches,rocky shores (some with barnacle- and oyster- coastsof the Indian , H. o. longipes.Given that the encrustedrocks) with a few small patchesof coral. The sea oystercatcheris widely recognisedas a model studyspecies around the island is rich in other life forms including sea for addressingkey questionsabout wader ecology and habi- snakes,dolphins and at leastthree speciesof marine turtle. tat use, any information aboutit from this part of the world During 1996-2000, Byet Dwarka was visited twice a shouldbe a useful additionto knowledge. year, generally in February and November. Each time, During the five years 1996-2000, I lived in Gujarat and recordswere kept on the waders and other wildlife present made frequentobservations on the wadersof Byet Dwarka, and a comprehensivecount of waderswas made in February a small island in the Gulf of Kutch. I also saw Oystercatch- 2000. Observationswere chiefly made at two sites, at each ers on this island on a numberof occasionsand during two end of the horseshoe-shapedisland. One site, Dunni-point, visits,in Februaryand November 2000, I madeobservations included about 8 km of shore. There, observations were on their behaviour. made on the shore facing the open sea as well as on the oppositeshore that looksacross a shelteredbay betweenthe STUDY AREA AND METHODS two endsof the island. The other site, at the oppositeend of the island,comprised 4 km of shorelineoverlooking the bay, ByetDwarka is a horseshoe-shapedisland of about25 km2, closeto Sundarvanoffice (Fig. 1). a few km offshorefrom Okha port (22ø27'N,69 ø13'E) in the Observationson the foraging behaviourof Oystercatch- Gulf of Kutch. It is 85 km west of Pirotan Island in the ers were all madefrom the shoresaround Dunni-point with Marine National Park, closeto Jamnagarport (Fig. 1). Much 8 x 32 binoculars,usually from about60 metres.Whenever of the island is barren, exceptfor a small area close to the possible,individual birds were observedfor continuous5- Okha port, which is inhabitedby a fishing community. minute periodsduring which behaviourwas recorded,par-

31 Buffetin 99 December 2002 32 Wader Study Group Bulletin

ticularly the number of probesin the mud and the number Table 1. Status of wetland birds observed at Byet Dwarka, Gulf of and size of prey items.Reactive distances of Kutch, India, during1996-2000 and numberscounted in February and Crab were estimated as the distance in metres at 2000 (W = wintering,P = passage migrant,NBS = non-breeding which an individual flew away at the approachof the summering,R = resident,with nestingrecorded from Gujaratstate, observer.The total time spentobserving Oystercatchers at B = nestingrecorded from Byet Dwarka or from areas in the imme- diate vicinity). Byet Dwarka during February and November 2000 was about 6 hoursbut recordsof only seven5-minute periods of Status Feb. 2000 continuousfeeding activity were obtained. count

RESULTS Scolopacidae Black-tailed Limosa limosa W, NBS 6 Observations on waders and other wildlife Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica W, NBS 60 Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus W, P 6 Byet Dwarka is rich in birdlife: duringmy studies,103 spe- EurasianCurlew Numeniusarquata W, P 15 cies were recordedincluding, in the inter-tidal zone, 30 SpottedRedshank erythropus W, P 5 Common RedshankTringa totanus W, P 18 Charadrii, 14 large wading species(, egrets, etc.) and Marsh SandpiperTringa stagnatilis W, P 3 five raptors(Urfi et al. 1997, Table 1 (which also gives sci- Common GreenshankTringa nebularia W, NBS 10 entific names of the study species)).In addition, Common Green SandpiperTringa ochropus W, P 15 SnipeGallinago ,Terek SandpiperXenus cinereus Wood SandpiperTringa glareola W, P 12 and Indian coromandelicus have been Common SandpiperActiris hypoleucos W, P 20 recordedby other birdwatchers.The majority of wadersare Ruddy TurnstoneArenaria interpres W, P 102 migrantsand inhabitthe inter-tidal zonewhere the substrate SanderlingCalidris alba W, P 5 is coral, mud or sand. However, there are also two resident Little minuta W, NBS 40 species,Eurasian Thick-Knee and Red-wattled that Temminck's Stint Calidris temminckii W, NBS 10 Calidris alpina W, NBS 60 occur in other habitats. In addition, Crab Plovers, which are SandpiperCalidris.]•krruginea W, NBS 6 commonand inhabit the inter-tidalzone, are probably mainly Philomachuspugnax W, P 150 resident, though they do move locally. During the 1984 Oxford University Expedition to the Gulf of Kutch, Crab Burhinidae Ploverswere recordedin fairly large numberson islandsin Eurasian Thick-Knee Burhinus oedicnemus R, B 8 the vicinity of Byet Dwarka. For instance,1200 were counted on BhaidarIsland, 25-30 km away. As severalof thosebirds Eurasian OystercatcherHaematopus ostralegus W, P, NBS 2O were immatures,it is likely that breedinghad taken place Black-winged Stilt Himantopushimantopus R 125 there in the sand dunes (Palmes & Briggs 1986). Crab Pied Recurvirostra avosetta R,W 70 Plovers were not recordedbreeding at Byet Dwarka during EuropeanGolden apricaria W, P, NBS 3 this study.All of the herons,egrets, etc. listedin Table 1 are Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola W, P, NBS 3 W,P 18 resident and confirmed breedersin other parts of Gujarat Little Ringed Plover dubius Charadrius alexandrinus W, P, R(?) 5 (Dharamakumarsinhji 1955). A large colony of nesting Charadrius mongolus W,P, NBS 12 Painted was discovered at Man Marodi Island, close Charadrius leschenauhii W, P, NBS 8 to Byet Dwarka, during the studyperiod (Urfi in press). Yellow-wattled Lapwing malarbaricus R, W(?) 2 Byet Dwarka alsoaffords nesting habitat for severalspe- Red-wattledLapwing Vanellusindicus R,B 8 cies of sea turtle and we discoveredfemale turtles using at least three of the island'sbeaches for this purpose.The evi- Crab Plover Dromas ardeola W, R 22 dence from track size, bone fragments including an intact anapsid skull suggestthat these are Olive Ridley Turtles Ardeidae Lepidochelysolivacea and Green Turtles Chelonia mydas Little Egret Egretta garzetta R 18 20 (Urfi et al. 1997). When picturesof different speciesof sea Western Reef Egret Egretta gularis R Grey Ardea cinerea R 10 turtleswere shownto local fishermen,they were ableto con- Great Egret Casmerodiusalbus R 8 firm their occurrence and also that of the Leatherback Tur- Intermediate Egret Mesophoyxintermedia R 6 tle Dermiochelys conica. At Byet Dwarka, sea turtles are Bubulcus ibis R 8 threatenedthrough nest by jackalsand wildboars. Indian PondHeron Ardeola grayii B 4 In addition,adults are occasionallycaught in fishing nets. Phoenicopteridae Greater Phoenicopterustuber R 6 Local status and feeding behaviour of Eurasian Lesser Flamingo Phoenicopterusminor R 35 Threskiornithidae In India, Oystercatchersare winter visitorsto seacoastsand Glossy Ibis Plegadis.]•alcinellus R 2 20 offshoreislands and occurmore frequently on the west coast Black-headedIbis Threskiornismelanocephalus R Black Ibis Pseudibispapillosa R 10 than the east(Ali & Ripley 1987). In ,they are more Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia R 15 abundant(Table 2), especially on the Makaran coast and around Karachi where considerable numbers of non-breed- Ciconiidae ing birds also over-summer(Ali & Ripley op. cit., Fig. 1). Painted Mycteria leucocephala R, B Although the numberof Oystercatchersreported in India has varied considerablyfrom year to year, a substantialpropor- tion, 25-54%, is invariably recordedin Gujarat (Table 2). • Bulletin99December2002 Urfi: Waders and other wetland birds of Byet Dwarka Island, Gulf of Kutch, western India 33

26 I - deg • Pakistan N MakaranCo[st ) • Karachi ArabianSea x{ 24 - deg • • Kutch N Gulfof • B•t Dwarka • •utch• • PirotanIsland

22 deg f . X N

• • : / ' 100kmI 5 km I I I 66 deg E 68 deg E 70 deg E

Fig. 1. Locationmap showingthe islandof Byet Dwarkaand other places mentionedin the text.

This probablyarises because of its proximityto the larger distance of 27 m (SD = 6.7, n = 5). populationsof Pakistan (Fig. 1). In Gujarat, the Oyster- At low , Oystercatcherswere observedforaging on catcheris describedas 'an uncommonbut regular passage exposedmud and in coral areas.Typically, they fed in small migranton the seacoast,arriving in Augustand leavingin groupsof 1-5 birds(Mean = 2.8, Table 3). At high tide, they April, thoughsome birds in adultsummer plumage were seen would roost in small groups. Indeed, no large, single or in June1953 (Dharamakumarsinhji1955). More recently,it mixed species roost of waders was encountered at Byet hasbeen described as 'still fairly commonduring winter on Dwarka during the study. While foraging, Oystercatchers the Kachchh(sic) and Saurashtracoastline with greaternum- mainly took small,unidentified prey but on a few occasions berson the oyster-encrustedrocky headlandsfrom Okha to worms were seen to be taken. In no case did the size of in- PirotanIsland, north of '(Khacher 1996, Fig. 1). dividual prey items exceed20% of bill length.The average Although the maximum number of Oystercatchers feedingrate was 3.4 itemsper 5 minutesof foragingand the countedin any visit to Byet Dwarka was only 20, it is esti- maximum recorded was 6 items in 5 minutes. mated that 60-100 could be present on the entire island. Most were seenin small feeding groups,scattered widely, DISCUSSION ratherthan in a few large flocks. Accordingto local people, Oystercatcherscan be seen almostthroughout the year at The considerablespecies-richness of wadersat Byet Dwarka Byet Dwarka. Perhapsbecause the island is not densely can be attributed to the fact that the island, with its valuable populated,Oystercatchers are not habituatedto people so intertidalfeeding habitat,lies along the major, westernmi- they appearto be shy and wary. They took flight at the gratoryflyway into the Indian subcontinent.However, Byet approachof an observerfrom an averagedistance of 64 m Dwarka may be on the periphery of the flyway because (Table 3). This figure is higherthan the reactivedistance of largerconcentrations of wadersoccur further to the east,in 25-48 m recordedfor Oystercatcherson the Exe estuaryin the vicinity of Pirotan Island, off Jamnagar(Fig. 1). SW England(Urfi et al. 1996). Crab Ploverson the other The Oystercatcheris widely regardedas a model study hand,which are similarin size andoften associate with Oys- species,but little informationon its ecologyis availablefrom tercatchersat Byet Dwarka, especiallyin the exposedcoral the Indian subcontinent.Although the datareported here are areas,appear to be more tolerantof humanswith a reactive sparse,they do suggestthat intakerates at Byet Dwarka may

Table 2. Counts of Eurasian Oystercatchers in various parts of Table 3. Observations on the behaviour of Eurasian Oystercatch- South (data from the Asian Waterfowl Census (Lopez & ers at Byet Dwarka during Februaryand November 2000. Feeding Mundkur 1997)). Note that these figures derive mainly from volun- rate, searching rate and reactive distance are given for several teer birdwatchersand are likely to be under-estimates. unmarked birds.

Year Pakistan India Gujarat Behaviour Mean SD N

1994 350 279 71 18 Feeding rate (prey taken/5 min.) 3.4 1.90 7* 1995 2350 2224 125 68 Searchingrate (probes/5min.) 29.0 12.8 5' 1996 1038 742* 292 87 Flock size 2.8 1.5 6 Reactive distance (m) 64.1 14.3 8 * In 1996 only 15 siteswere coveredin Pakistancompared to 31 in 1994 and 32 in 1995, so the reducednumbers are probably a result of under- * 5-minute intervals recording.

Bulletin 99 December 2002 34 Wader Study Group Bulletin

I ' Maximum-e- Minimum scaleof suchevents increases, it will be disastrousnot only 35 for the waders,but also for many other forms of wildlife. o 30 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank Mr K.V. Sarabhai, Director of the Center for • •o EnvironmentEducation, Ahmedabad, for encouragingme to pursuemy field studieson birdsalongside my dutiesas the • •o Coordinatorof SundarvanNature EducationProgrammes. I am gratefulto the MeteorologicalDepartment, Ahmedabad for providingmeteorological data and to HumphreySitters o for helpful commentson earlier drafts that have resultedin J F M A M J J A S O N D a considerablyimproved version of the manuscript.I also wish to thank Professor T.R. Rao, the Director of the School Month of EnvironmentalStudies, University of Delhi, for provid- ing facilities in his laboratory while this paper was being written. Fig. 2, Mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures recordedat Okha port, Gulf of Kutch, India during2000. (Source: REFERENCES Meteorological Department, Ahmedabad) Ali, S. & Ripley, S.D. 1987. Compacthandbook of the birds of lndia and Pakistan. Oxford University Press,New Delhi. be ratherlow comparedwith thoserecorded in NW Europe. Arthur, R. 2000. The myth of the Chusnas.Sanctuary Asia 20: 44-47. If this provesto be correct,it may be that it arisesbecause Dharmakumarsinhji, R.S. 1955. The Birds of . Times of In- dia Press, Bombay. food requirementsare low becausethere is a lesserneed for Ellis, H.I. 1984. Energetics of free ranging . In: energy for thermoregulationin view of the benign winter Energetics. G.C. Whittow & M. Rahn feds). pp. 203-234. Plenum climate (Fig. 2). As severalauthors, such as Ellis (1984), Press, New York. Hails (1983) and Klaassenet al. (1990), have argued,birds Goss-Custard, J.D. 1996. The Oystercatcher- fi'om individuals to wintering in tropical areasuse considerablyless energy for populations. Oxford University Press,Oxford. their basal metabolic rate comparedto birds from colder Hails, C.J. 1983. The metabolicrate of tropicalbirds. Condor 85: 61-65. Inskipp, T., Lindsey, N. & Duckworth, W. 1996. An AnnotatedCheck- . list of the Birds of the Oriental Region. Oriental Bird Club, Sandy. Byet Dwarka is a sitethat is full of opportunitiesfor wader Khacher, L. 1996. The birds of Gujarat - a Salim Ali centenaryoverview. studyand conservationaction. At present,the island is un- Journal o.f Bombay Natural History Society 93:331-373. spoilt and, besidesfishing and , there are few Klaassen,M., Kersten, M. & Ens, B.J. 1990.Energetic requirements for human activities. Just a few kilometres across the water on maintenanceand premigratorybody massgain of waderswintering in the mainland,however, there are severalsalt manufacturing . Ardea 78: 209-220. units and industries.Very soon, it is likely that thesewill Lopez, A. & Mundkur, T. 1997. The Asian Wate•Tfowlcensus 1994- 1996. Resultso.f the CoordinatedWaterbird Censusand an overview expandand begin to exert a negativeinfluence on the ecol- of the status o/' in Asia. Wetlands International, Kuala ogy of Byet Dwarka. Indeed,local conservationistsconsider Lumpur. that the cementindustries and salt productionunits around Palmes, P. & Briggs, C. 1986. Crab-ploversDromas ardeola in the Gulf Okha are alreadyhaving an effect.However, the main threat of Kutch. Forktail 1: 21-28. to theecology of the inter-tidalareas of Byet Dwarka is prob- Urfi, A.J. (in press) A record of a nesting colony of ably from oil spills,especially from tankersplying the Gulf (Mycteria leucocephala)at Man-Marodi Island in the Gulf of Kutch. Journal Bombay Natural History Society. of Kutch. In November 1999, for example,a leak occurred Urfi, A.J., Goss-Custard, J.D. & Durell, S.E.A. le V. dit. 1996. The abil- in an oil pipeline in the watersof the Gulf (Arthur 2000). ity of OystercatchersHaematopus ostralegus to compensatefor lost Also, towardsthe end of 2000, there was a major spill f¾om feeding time: field studies on individually marked birds. Journal of a large oil tankerin the Gulf of Kutch and duringmy visit to Applied Ecology 33: 873-883. Byet Dwarka in Novemberof that year severaloil slickshad Urfi, A.J., Raol, L., Nareshwar, E.K. & Jadeja, R. 1997. Birding and been depositedon the beaches(including Dunni Point and other natural history observations at Byet Dwarka, Saurashtra (Gujarat). Newsletter.florBirdwatchers 37: 36-39. the coral areasnearby). Undoubtedly,if the frequencyand

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