Vanellus spinosus

Ammavaripeta Cheruvu, Warangal

Renowned for its extensive natural resources, breathtaking scenery, and rich cultural legacy Telangana is the eleventh largest state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of 112,077 km² of which 21,214 km² is forest cover. The dry deciduous forests ecoregion of the central Deccan Plateau covers much of the state, including Hyderabad. The characteristic vegetation is woodlands of Hardwickia binata and Albizia amara. Over 80% of the original forest cover has been cleared for agriculture, timber harvesting, or cattle grazing, but large blocks of forest can be found in the Nagarjuna Sagar - Srisailam Tiger Reserve and elsewhere. The more humid Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests cover the Eastern Ghats in the eastern part of the state. The Central Deccan forests have an upper canopy at 15–25 meters, and an understory at 10–15 meters, with little undergrowth.

The dry sub-humid zone or Dichanthium-cenchrus-lasitrrus type of grasslands are prevalent here and cover almost the entirety of peninsular India except the Nilgiris. One sees thorny bushes like the Acacia catechu or Khair as it is known in Hindi, Mimosa, Zizyphus (Ber) and sometimes the fleshy Euphorbia, along with low trees of Anogeissus letifolia or Axle Wood, Soymida febrifuga - the Indian Redwood - and other deciduous species. Sehima (grass) which is more prevalent on gravel is about 27% of the cover and Dichanthium(grass) which flourishes on level soil is almost 80% of the coverage.

Telangana's extensive network of lakes, which enhance the state's scenic appeal and serve a vital role in delivering water for irrigation, home usage, and industrial reasons, is one of the state's most notable natural characteristics. Telangana has lakes due to its geography and the copious amounts of rain that fall there during the monsoons. Telangana is home to some of India's most stunning and ecologically significant water features, with over 6,000 natural and man-made lakes. Endowed with a rich natural resource base and a diverse environment, there are many lakes in the area, both natural and man-made, which are significant water supplies for industry, domestic use, and irrigation. The lakes of Telangana are a crucial component of the area's ecosystem and provide a habitat for many different plant and animal species. Many of the state's numerous lakes, which range in size and depth and provide visitors with breathtaking views and leisure activities like boating, fishing, and bird watching, are well-liked tourist destinations. Telangana's lakes visually represent the state's natural beauty and ecological diversity, from the picturesque Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad to the tranquil Pakhal Lake in the Warangal district.

Today I am at the Ammavaripeta Cheruvu, a small lake some kilometers away from the ancient city of Warangal. Over the last couple of months this small lake has garnered attention for having an unusual visitor - the Spur-winged Lapwing. There are many such locations across Telangana which are home to migrants and seasonal visitors and every experience of seeing a new bird provides a rush that one can only feel by doing something they love. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, bird and wildlife watching is a great form of recreation for people of all ages and always provides an opportunity to learn something new.

Ammavaripeta Cheruvu

Ammavaripeta Cheruvu is a small lake some kilometers away from the ancient city of Warangal, the erstwhile capital of the Kakatiyas. It is one of the few unpolluted lakes in the area. Located about 1.5 km from the ancient Kakatiya capital of Warangal and 3 km from the town of Kazipet, surrounded by lush green fields, the lake was constructed in AD 1213 by the Kakatiya king Ganapati Deva. The lake lies in the precincts of the village of the same name falling in the Hanamkonda Mandal in the Warangal district. A peaceful village, its claim to fame is the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, a tribal Hindu festival to honour the tribal goddesses. Held every two years to honour the goddesses Sammakka and her daughter Sarakka (also called Saralamma), it is the time for the largest tribal congregation in the world with approximately 10 million people converging on the site over a period of 4 days. The devout offer Bellam (jaggery), locally called Bangaram (gold), to the deities. The jatra begins at the remote village of Medaram in Tadvai Mandala in the Mulugu district, deep in the Etunagaram Wildlife Sanctuary, one of the oldest sanctuaries of Telangana, and a part of Daṇḍakāraṇya - the largest surviving forest belt in the Deccan and mentioned in the epic Rāmāyaṇa. All rituals to the goddesses are performed by the priests of the forest dwelling Koya Tribe (Koitur in Koya Bhasha) in accordance with their customs and traditions. This intangible cultural heritage of Telangana is believed to attract the largest number of devotees in the country after the Kumbha Mela. 

There are many legends about the miraculous powers of Sammakka. According to a 13th-century tribal legend, some tribal leaders on a hunt found a newborn girl (Sammakka) enveloped in light playing amidst tigers. They took her to the tribal chief, who adopted and raised her as a leader. She later became the saviour of the tribals in the region. She was married to Pagididda Raju, the tribal chief of the Koyas. Medaram was ruled by the Kakatiyas from their capital in Warangal between 1000-1323 AD. Sammakka had two daughters and one son, Sarakka alias Saralamma, Nagulamma, and Jampanna. King Prataprudra of the Kakatiyas imposed taxes on the Koya Tribe, which they could not pay. As a result, King Prataprudra declared war on the Koya Tribe. Pagididda Raju was killed in the ensuing battle forcing the grief-stricken Sammakka to pick up the fight with her daughter Saralamma, her son Jampanna, and her son-in-law Govinda Raju. Sammakka had almost won when Saralamma died in the battle. Jampanna was mortally wounded and fell bleeding into Sampangi vaagu (stream). Legend has it that the stream, a tributary of the mighty Godavari, turned red from the blood, and the stream was renamed "Jampanna Vaagu" in honour of Jampanna's sacrifice. Distraught, Sammakka retired to a hill called Chilakala Gutta and turned into a turmeric jar (kumkuma bharani) filled with kumkuma powder. After the battle, Sammakka and Saralamma were deified and a festival or jatra was organised in their honour once every 2 years. To this day, the Koya tribe and devotees believe that Sammakka and Saralamma are manifestations of Adi Parashakti (the Supreme Goddess in Hinduism - Mahadevi as the Mulaprakriti (Primordial Goddess) is described having five primary forms—Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Gayatri and Radha) sent to protect them. The jatra is a celebration to honour their sacrifice. The kumkuma jar is brought to Medaram and people wash themselves in Jampanna Vaagu, followed by an offering of Bellam or jaggery to Sammakka and Saralamma.

Several communities in Telangana society support the jatra as it is a “mythical” narrative of two tribal women leaders who rebelled against the Kakatiya rulers trying to annex their land and forests. Legend states it was Sammakka’s curse which eventually caused the gradual decline and eventual demise of the Kakatiya dynasty.

Today the small lake has garnered attention for having an unusual visitor - the Spur-winged Lapwing. There are many such location across Telangana which are home to migrants and seasonal visitors and every experience of seeing a new bird provides a rush that one can only feel by doing something they love. My friend - Ismail - and I timed our drive beautifully to reach just before sunrise and just as we had settled in with our gear the spur-winged flew in, constantly calling and announcing its presence, before landing a few meters in front of us. The sun was rising behind us and bathed the entire scene in beautiful golden light. From then on and continuing for the next few hours it flew in and out and around its favourite perches giving us ample opportunities to document it in detail and observe its interactions with the Red-wattled Lapwings it was keeping company with. 

The local birders and experts told me that this lake is frequented by many migrants and I think I will continue to visit this pristine lake and document as many as I can.

Watch in 4K the lake, its environs and the Spur-winged Lapwing as it goes about its routine and interacts with the Red-wattled Lapwings.

Spur-winged Lapwing/ Spur-winged Plover

The Spur-winged Lapwing or Spur-winged Plover (Vanellus spinosus) is a lapwing species, one of a group of largish waders in the family Charadriidae. A native to North Africa, the Middle East and Mediterranean regions; it has never been sighted in the sub-continent before. It breeds around the eastern Mediterranean, and in a wide band from sub-Saharan west Africa to Arabia. The Greek and Turkish breeders are migratory, but other populations are resident. The species is declining in its northern range, but is abundant in much of tropical Africa, being seen at almost any wetland habitat in its range. The spur-winged lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.

In eastern and southern Africa the species has seen a range increase, entering Zambia for the first time in 1999 and spreading south and west. Could it be that this is its first foray into the subcontinent?

Formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, the spur-winged was initially placed with the plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius spinosus. He specified the type locality as Egypt. The specific epithet is from Latin meaning "thorny" (from spina meaning "thorn"). Linnaeus based his account on a description by the Swedish naturalist Fredrik Hasselquist that had been published in 1757. The spur-winged lapwing is now one of 23 species placed in the genus Vanellus that was introduced in 1760 by the French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

These are conspicuous and unmistakable birds. They are medium-large waders with a black crown, chest, a fore-neck stripe and tail. The face, the rest of the neck and belly are white and the wings and back are light brown. The bill and legs are black. Its striking appearance is supplemented by its noisy nature, with a loud did-he-do-it call. The bird's common name refers to a small claw or spur hidden in each of its wings. They are often locally abundant, noisy, and easy to identify given their striking plumage of black, white, and brown. They are very vocal, producing a piercing and repeated “sik-sik-sik…” call. Usually found around wetlands, they are also away from water in cultivated areas and even suburbia and urban settings. They forage mainly for arthropods, but also small reptiles and amphibians. They lay their eggs on the ground, and are often very aggressive against invaders into its territory, be it a crow or a falcon. They are also active at night.

The species has a predominately African distribution, however its breeding range extends into the east Mediterranean (Wiersma and Kirwan 2012), where it is found in Cyprus and Turkey, as well as Greece and Macedonia although its range has retracted in this area and it no longer breeds in Macedonia (Snow and Perrins 1998). It breeds around the eastern Mediterranean, and in a wide band from sub-Saharan west Africa to Arabia. The Greek and Turkish breeders are migratory, but other populations are resident. The species is declining in its northern range, but is abundant in much of tropical Africa, being seen at almost any wetland habitat in its range. The spur-winged lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies. This is the first record of its sighting in the subcontinent. 

In eastern and southern Africa the species has seen a range increase, entering Zambia for the first time in 1999 and spreading south and west. Maybe with this foray into the Indian subcontinent it is the beginning of its spread here given their preference for marshes and similar freshwater wetland habitats. The food of the spur-winged lapwing is insects and other invertebrates, which are picked from the ground.

It lays four blotchy yellowish eggs on a ground scrape. The spur-winged lapwing is known to sometimes use the wing-claws in an attack on animals and, rarely, people, who get too close to the birds' exposed offspring.

The "spur-winged plover" was identified by Henry Scherren as the "trochilus" bird said by the Greek historian Herodotus to be involved in what would now be called a cleaning symbiosis with the Nile crocodile. However, there is no reliable evidence that this or any other species in fact has such a relationship, although Cott does record that spur-winged plovers are the birds that most often feed around basking crocodiles, and are tolerated by them.

This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km² combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be increasing, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. 

The global population is estimated at 130,000-800,000 individuals (Wetlands International 2015). The European population is estimated at 1,100-1,600 pairs, which equates to 2,100-3,200 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015). That said, to justify the growing trend it is also stated that the population is suspected to be increasing as ongoing habitat degradation is creating new areas of suitable habitat (del Hoyo et al. 1996). The European population is estimated to be stable (BirdLife International 2015). This justification, for us monitoring in India, is of crucial importance as the bird may be seeking newer more suitable habitats. 

From a behaviour standpoint, the African breeding populations are largely sedentary (Hayman et al. 1986) but may make irregular local movements (e.g. to drier areas during the rains) although it does not appear to be very sensitive to seasonal changes in water-level (del Hoyo et al. 1996). Breeders in the eastern Mediterranean region are fully migratory however and disperse south to Africa for the winter (del Hoyo et al. 1996). The species nests from March to September in West Africa and in the eastern Mediterranean region (Hayman et al. 1986), the timing of breeding varying geographically elsewhere (del Hoyo et al. 1996). It nests in solitary pairs or loose colonies and outside of the breeding season flocks of up to 15 (occasionally up to 200) individuals may occur (del Hoyo et al. 1996).

Inclusion in the India Birds Checklist & a study on change in Migration Behaviour of the Spur-winged Lapwing

On a final note, the Spur-winged Lapwing, at the moment is being considered in the Provisional List of Birds in India. The reason for this is the origin of the two birds present at Ammavaripeta Cheruvu - their origin is unknown. It cannot be stated with certainty that these two birds have flown such an extraordinary distance from their home range to migrate here. That said though there are studies which have illustrated that in some cases that have migrated and some individuals have not returned to their home range. I have an abstract below and the link to the report itself.

Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosus) that is a bird from Charadriiformes is resident in Middle Africa, summer migratory in Middle East and Europe and also breed there. This study which research its migration behaviour was contucted in Boğazkent/Antalya that is important breeding area for it. 50 individual was counted in area in 2015 breeding season. Although Spur-winged Lapwing is known a summer migratory bird in Turkey, we confirm that 16 individual didn't remigrate to Africa and stayed in breeding area at the end of the breeding season 2015.

The PDF version of the study itself. 

So could our two birds of Ammavaripeta Cheruvu be the first migrants to fresher pastures? Could this be the beginning of an entire species relocating to habitats more conducive to its survival and sustenance? Will the two males here mate with the abundant Red-wattled Lapwings and create a new subspecies? The questions are many and only time will tell if this is a sign of the change that global warming is causing.

Also when it is difficult to prove the provenance of a species - is it truly wild or is it an escapee - due to a lack of identifiers like radio tagging or colour marked it is not immediately considered in the main list of birds of a country. It does count towards the total number but till the time of identification is completed to certainty the species is counted in the Provisional list of birds in the region.

To understand how such difficult cases are handled do read the attached document. I have listed a couple of excerpts below.

Excerpt 1:

The India Checklist (Praveen et al. 2016) and its subsequent updates until version 2.3 (Praveen et al. 2019) did not provide a clear framework for dealing with species records of unknown origin—particularly of records that may have possibilities of multiple origins, namely, wild vagrants, cage escapees, vagrants from an extralimital introduced stock, or ship assistance, or illegally smuggled into the country. In the absence of rules that deal with such criteria, a clear decision often becomes contentious when a ‘new’ species is proposed as an addition to the list. An editorial note under Saikia & Goswami (2017) acknowledged these lacunae and called for a review of the current practice, and the framing of a more forward-looking policy. This note attempts to frame such a policy for the India Checklist. It is also to be noted here that well-established bird checklists, like those of the United Kingdom (maintained by British Ornithologists Union) and the United States (maintained by American Birding Association), already have a policy framework to handle such cases.

Excerpt 2:

The most challenging task for a checklist manager is to establish the provenance of a species; whether it is from natural or naturalised stock. This is a daunting task unless such birds are ringed, or colour-marked. Hence, some guiding principles must be framed to handle such cases. The first articulation should be to ascertain if a species is known from pet trade in the country or from adjoining countries. If the odds are in favour of an escapee from a zoo, or the pet trade or a private collection, then the case should be categorised as such and may well be excluded from the checklist and listed only in Appendix I (a new provisional list of human-assisted species records). On the contrary, if the odds favour a wild origin, then there is no reason to doubt its inclusion in the checklist.

We, however, understand that some cases may not be easily resolved and, as such, may warrant extensive deliberations. Exceptionally, such deliberations may remain inconclusive. Such cases should be explicitly documented as a new list and excluded from the checklist (Appendix II: new category for species of unknown origins).

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The following are some screen grabs from my video.

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