Operation Wagtails

The first bird-ringing camp in Sri Lanka:

by K. G. H. Munidasa

Much of the knowledge we have at present about the seasonal migration of birds we owe to what is called Bird-ringing. It is a process in which a light metal ring of appropriate size is fastened to the leg of a bird while on migration or of a young bird before it leaves the nest.

During the ringing particulars as to the bird's specific identity, the date and place of attaching the ring are recorded in a special register, and the bird is then released.

The ringing of migrant birds has been going on in the world since 1899, and up to now over 1,000,000 ringed birds has been recovered. In the British Isles nearly one-hundred thousand birds are annually ringed and released to further the knowledge on the subject.

In the Americas, it is said, the figure exceeds over 400,000 a year. In India the Bombay Natural History Society is conducting similar research on the birds found in that country, during winter migration.

After the discovery of a regular roosting colony of the wagtails in the Gal Oya Valley, in 1962, the Ceylon Bird Club extended its bird-ringing program to Sri Lanka, which was formerly done in the Indian mainland, in collaboration with the BNHS. In the first year 36 Forest Wagtails were ringed at a sugarcane patch on the right bank of the Gal Oya River, east of the Ampara town.

The following is a firsthand account of the first ringing camp as given by the writer, who incidentally discovered the roosting colony and the person who was instrumental in organising the camp.

In the late 1950s, while I was attached to the Gal Oya Sugar Industries, watching the flights of wagtails in the evening sky has been an absorbing pastime of mine. From the varandah of my quarters at Muwangala I watched them practically everyday at sunset as flock after flock of these winged creatures passed above me, in an endless stream.

These twittering flocks always came from the setting sun and flew in an easterly direction, even after the darkness had well advanced. I never tried to find out why they flew like that or where they were heading for.

The mysterious flight of the wagtails has been going on for years, from about each September to April or May, the following year. Then in February 1963, the Ceylon Bird Club approached me with the peculiar request, i.e. could I help the club discover a roosting place of the WAGTAILS, so that its "bird ringing programme could be an extension of that in India by the Bombay Natural History Society."

The communication added that in India these birds "collected in enormous flocks there and fly for anything up to 25 miles to certain small patches of cane, where they arrive at about sunset and leave again at about sunrise the following morning."

Heeding the request, one evening as the first scattered flocks of wagtails appeared in the sky, I started to follow them over ground. Through the maize of sugar cane I tracked them, over wide swamps, across scrubland, wading streams and deep channels, I followed their aerial route and finally lost sight of them at dusk, about three miles from my starting point.

The following evening, I set off from where I had left the previous day and after another couple of miles run lost them once again in deep forest, at sunset. On the third day my progress through a stretch of paddy fields was less cumbersome than the previous evening and coming out of a wind-belt I spied the cane fields where the roosts were.

A more grandiose sight I had not seen before. The darkening sky was literally raining birds over an area several acres in extent, and their twittering became quite a roar in my ears as I approached closer. At a rough estimate there could have between 40 to 50,000 birds in the colony.

For the next two weeks I visited the roosts almost daily until the officials of Ceylon Bird Club arrived at Ampara with nets, collecting bags and other equipments to begin the ringing operation. As scheduled, the first ringing camp was held at a place called Galmadu, east of the Ampara town, on the evening of March 9, 1963.

We reached the location an hour before the first few flocks of birds arrived in the roosting area, and attended to the initial preparations. First of all several thin bamboo poles, each 12 feet tall, were planted along the margin of the standing cane across which the birds were likely to escape on being flushed.

Then 40-60 ft. nylon Mist nets (so called because their colour blended amazingly well with the blue-grey sky) were looped on the poles and pushed up with a stick to a level of one foot above the tops of the cane.

As the sky darkened, birds started to arrive at the roosts in their thousands, while we remained under cover until they settled down for the night. Finally the Operation Wagtails began at 6.30 p.m.

Wearing coarse overalls and gumboots, members of the party crept into the patch of cane from two sides and progressed through the matted stems, slowly at first and then making a big commotion as each veered towards the positioned nets, thus flushing out swarms of birds in the direction we expected them to fly.

Then began the most tedious job of retrieving the birds from the nets, where they dangled like a set of strange flies from a giant cobweb. This called for a certain amount of intelligence and skill, in order not to cause any damage to wing or feather.

The first harvest brought in 36 Forest Wagtails, with a few munias, which apparently shared the roosts. The actual ringing commenced in the mellow light of a paraffin lamp, hung from a nearby branch.

As I said before, the birds to be ringed had to be handled with great care, compelling one to sit up late into the night.

The light metal ring bearing a serial number and a short message - (in the present instance it read "INFORM BNHS") , was attached to the instep region of the bird's leg. Information pertaining to the bird's specific identity, wing-length, serial number of the ring, date and location of the ringing camp was recorded on a chart in duplicate (one copy of which was to be returned to the BNHS), and the bird was then released.

During the three years the ringing camp was in operation in the Gal Oya Valley, a little over 300 wagtails were ringed, including a number of the yellow species, on the final occasion.

No recoveries of ringed birds from Sri Lanka are on record, so far.

Yet a forest wagtail which was picked up dead by a resident of Hingurana in 1965 and brought to the writer for identification carried a ring bearing the ser. No. A-60486 and the legend Inform Bombay Natural History Society.