7 months ago
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Cyclones often permission down damaged roads, flooded neighbourhoods, and battered coastlines. This weekend, Cyclone Ditwah brought thing unexpected to Tamil Nadu’s enactment — 2 pistillate Amur Falcons that were blown disconnected their agelong migratory people and into Point Calimere (Kodiyakarai).
The Amur Falcon, a tiny raptor that breeds successful southeastern Siberia and bluish China, is 1 of the world’s astir bonzer migrants. Each year, it travels astir 40,000 km, cutting crossed the Central Asian and West Asian flyways earlier crossing the Arabian Sea to scope confederate Africa. Its emblematic way done India lies on the Gujarat-Maharashtra corridor. Tamil Nadu’s seashore is acold extracurricular this path.
Yet this is not the archetypal clip storms person carried the taxon here. Point Calimere recorded its first-ever Amur Falcon successful 2020, aft cyclones Nivar and Burevi. In November 2024, 2 much were sighted during Cyclone Fengal. Now, arsenic Cyclone Ditwah churned crossed the Bay, 2 pistillate Amur Falcons appeared erstwhile again adjacent to the BNHS Bird Migration Study Centre.
S. Sivakumar, Assistant Director, BNHS, said specified sightings underline however cyclones change migratory trajectories. “This is not their regular migratory route. Amur Falcons usually walk done Gujarat and Maharashtra. Strong cyclonic winds tin stroke them acold from their viable path. We archetypal recorded the taxon present successful 2020. Now, during Cyclone Ditwah, 2 person appeared again,” helium said.
For the birds, Kodiyakarai is an unscheduled halt — a uncommon intermission successful an different relentless, transcontinental journey.
